BY ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON -- Latonia Elementary students and their parents will help teachers re-open the school today with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house.
Students will return for classes on Wednesday, three weeks after the school was closed because of asbestos contamination.
"I'm very excited," Principal Connie Ryle said Mondayat the school. "I know the students are excited and the parents are expressing relief."
Today's ceremony will start at 6 p.m.
Students have been bused to Northern Kentucky University's Covington campus while Latonia Elementary was cleaned of asbestos dust, dislodged during a construction project in late September to install Internet wiring at the school.
Air samples finally turned up asbestos-free on Friday.Teachers and staff are now working to get classrooms and the library back in order.
Books and other supplies were moved during the cleaning process, which involved using fans to stir up asbestos dust.
"It isn't nearly as bad as we expected, having had leaf blowers in here," Ms. Ryle said. "It's not bad at all. It's not taking too long to get things in order."
The school has been closed since Sept. 30 after parents saw asbestos-warning signs in the school and district officials determined there was a danger of breathing asbestos dust in the air.
The price tag for busing students who normally would not be bused, leasing Northern Kentucky University's Covington campus for classes and obtaining additional asbestos training for staff is expected to be steep. School officials did not have a total cost figure Monday.
Food Service Director Phyllis Martin said there was no additional cost for food service because district employees prepared the meals at Glenn O. Swing Elementary. Erlanger-Elsmere Schools donated equipment to transport the meals to the NKU campus.
Attendance at the NKU campus has been 94 percent, which is the normal attendance rate for Latonia students, school officials said.
Asbestos in the ceiling tiles, concrete walls and a door was disturbed by contractors installing wiring for Internet access. The contractors were working at night in the school since Sept. 21. Since that time, various agencies and businesses used fans to stir up asbestos dust, filtered the dust out of the air and tested air samples. More than 20 workers spent 12-hour days cleaning the building.
The Internet wiring project that caused the problems is now on hold until next summer when school is out of session.
