A foul odor is pervading an elite public school in Hell’s Kitchen that parents say has hurt their children’s health and forced the founder of a beloved arts program to resign over health concerns.
The smell — a revolting blend of gasoline and paint — has led students and teachers at Beacon High School to report headaches, dizziness, nausea and a burning sensation in the nose. Fumes are reportedly strongest in the basement, where the school’s state-of-the-art music facilities are located.
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Taxis in front of Beacon High School (Evan Simko-Bednarski)
The parents blame a handful of decades-old taxi and auto repair shops on the same block. The school moved into its building on W. 44th St. eight years ago, taking over the location from a book warehouse.
“If a school is not the safest place for children,” said Jason Cottle, whose daughter will be a junior this fall, “then you have a problem at the most structural, fundamental level with society.
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“There’s a problem with volatile chemicals because of taxi cabs. You either fix it or you move these kids to where the air is safe.”
Before the school moved in, an environmental review conducted in 2010 and 2011 identified the location as repair facilities.
But the taxi shops weren’t recorded as pollution sources until a state Department of Environmental Conservation issued them pollution control permits in 2015, according to the School Construction Authority — after the authority had already greenlit the building’s opening.
Since moving into the location, students and teachers have repeatedly tried sounding the alarm, to varying success.
Neither the city’s Health nor Education departments have recorded issues with the air quality. Three indoor air quality assessments conducted by the schools this past year found all levels were within acceptable range, though an odor was detected.
“The Health Department began investigating as soon as we were made aware of concerns,” said department spokesman Patrick Gallahue. “We will continue working with NYC Public Schools, but no elevated levels of volatile organic compounds have been detected to date.”
Taxicabs line the curb along West 44th St., home to four taxi garages as well as the elite Beacon High School. (Evan Simko-Bednarski)
Then in June, a continuous weeklong air quality study ordered by the teachers union found levels of contaminants were usually low, but periodically spiked above recommended guidelines. The highest reading was 38% higher than recommended by the detector’s manufacturer — guidelines based on global consensus for indoor air quality standards — and recorded during regular school hours.
The report traced the pathway of outside air into the building, and found it “supports suspicions” that the source of the odor and emissions is one or many of the neighboring taxi companies.
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Multiple school and camp programs operate in the building over the summer, including one for children with significant disabilities. Close to 1,500 students are due back in the building next month as the school year begins, city projections show.
Beacon mom Gina Zucker said the situation has weighed heavily on her daughter, and at least one other student at Beacon with asthma. While she could not be sure that the air and her child’s health condition are linked, she noticed her asthmatic episodes increase when she’s regularly in the building.
“She used to use her rescue inhaler once a month,” Zucker said of her daughter, who will be a junior. “Now she uses it pretty much every day.”
The taxi and auto repair shops insist their businesses are not to blame.
Mike Sinder, who runs Mike’s Yellow Management and Orsap Taxi Corp. next-door to the school, told the Daily News that multiple city inspectors have shown up in recent months.
Mike Sinder of Mike’s Yellow Management and Orsap Taxi Corporation stands in front of his garage on 44th Street, next door to Beacon High School. (Evan Simko-Bednarski)
“Every other day they are sending somebody,” he said. “Three times someone came to check for fumes, and they found no fumes.”
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The Department of Environmental Protection did cite Sinder in March for “strong oil and machinal-type odors that did enter Beacon High School” via the school’s HVAC system. Sinder is due in front of the city’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings this month to contest that finding.
Taxicabs line the curb along W. 44th St., home to four taxi garages as well as the elite Beacon High School. (Evan Simko-Bednarski)
City records show the shop was also hit with a $1,200 fine in 2018 for the “emission of [an] odorous air contaminant.”
A Department of Buildings violation leveled against Sinder’s shop in April claims he’s violating the building’s Certificate of Occupancy from 1935, which lists the building as a “bottling works and garage,” not an auto repair shop.
Snider said the city is splitting hairs. He told The News last week that he plans to fight the violation in court.
“This has been a problem from the beginning,” said Brian Letiecq, the school’s former music director who resigned this year. “When I got to the building in 2015, one of the custodians took me to look at the interior courtyard, and from the ground skyward Beacon’s walls were taxicab yellow from the spray painting.”
“The auto repair shops need to be closed — the school should never have been built next to them in the first place,” Letiecq said.
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Letiecq told The News he’s experienced a range of symptoms and was recently diagnosed with asthma. He estimated he must’ve filed complaints to 311 several dozen times.
“I’ve even spoken with the owners of the shops and begged them to stop poisoning us,” he said. “Nothing worked. The air-quality problem remains dangerous, unabated and deeply troubling for the school community.”
“I could not continue working under these circumstances.”
Letiecq, who built the beloved music program at Beacon’s current location, said hundreds of students have lost a lot of time in class because they were routinely forced to flea the basement for other locations. In the spring, the program was offered space in makeshift venues, from a science lab on the fifth floor to the cafeteria.
None were viable alternatives to the basement, which has band rehearsal rooms, production suites, two recording studios and tracking rooms, practice rooms and a concert hall.
Multiple music students testified to issues with the move at a public hearing in March.
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“The new space doesn’t have any of the instruments or practice studios or sound recording equipment we need. So the whole curriculum is sort of just being watered down,” said a Beacon student, who was a junior at the time.
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“Our principal has contacted so many people and organizations about this problem, but nothing ever happens,” he added. “And I desperately want to get back to making music at Beacon.”
Alongside the music program director, Beacon’s principal also resigned at the end of this school year.
A rep for the public schools did not answer a question about future use of the basement.
“We are aware and engaged in this situation and take these concerns seriously,” said Jenna Lyle, the spokeswoman. “We’ve taken steps within the school to ensure clean air is circulating throughout the whole building, including pursuing additional remediation recommendations from UFT, and are continuing to perform regular air quality testing.”
The city has installed a smoke seal and are adding a weatherstrip seal on the basement doors, as well as carbon filters and a wind deflector. Officials also ordered filter upgrades for delivery this month.
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Elizabeth Delabarre, parent of a rising 11th-grade student, told The News she experienced symptoms and smelled the odor first-hand while volunteering at her son’s school.
“It’s just not acceptable, but I don’t have another choice,” Delabarre said. “I can’t whip him out of school.”