Response from School District

Ron Peacock, the Director of the Facilities Planning Department for the School District, sent the following response to Chasidy Hobbs' email I posted earlier:

Ms Hobbs:

As Director of Facilities Planning for the school district, thank you for your interest in our proposed new "state of the art" elementary school that is being planned for the Pace Blvd site. This technology rich, LEED certified facility will incorporate many innovative educational elements. One of these elements will focus on having students study the environment through the adjacent wetlands, the LEED features incorporated in the construction, and the wildlife sanctuary as part of the curriculum.

Regarding the existing environmental conditions on the adjacent properties and any of the property the school district has purchased, it has always been our plan to thoroughly explore and define any contaminants which may affect the proposed project development and the safety and health of our students and staff. The school district received a letter and review memo on August 26, 2009 from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) in response to our prior meetings and submission of phase environmental , site assessment , and site tests reports provided to FDEP. Our continued plan of action is to comply with all recommendations contained in the letter and review memo from FDEP.

To that end, a meeting was held today with our environmental consultants, Architect, civil engineer and district staff to identify and coordinate the next steps of addressing the environmental issues. Direction was given to our environmental consultant (Thompson engineering) to prepare a proposal to perform additional testing and site assessment to comply with the requirements and recommendations of the letter/review memo issued by FDEP on August 25,2009.

Based on the additional assessment findings, the school district will take any and all actions required to mitigate any contaminants found to be a threat to the safety and health of our students and staff in accordance with all state and federal regulations.
Hopefully, this communication addressees your concerns expressed in your email.
If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.


Ronald F. Peacock, Director
Facilities Planning Dept.