Over the years, students and staff at North Salem schools tolerated classrooms without enough heat and classrooms blasting heat. Then a roof leak was discovered, followed by mold in the walls. Teachers complained of headaches and respiratory problems. Water quality became a problem.

"We have a lot of issues coming up at our buildings and not enough money to maintain them," said Scott Lenhart, a high school science teacher at the northern Westchester County district who began asking about the state of the infrastructure and soon found himself heading the first-ever North Salem Teachers Association Health and Safety Committee. "We're one of the most affluent communities in the country but we haven't done enough to keep up the facilities."

At the 2007 NYSUT Health and Safety Conference in Albany, he learned there is no shortage of laws and policies to assure that teachers work in settings that keep them safe, comfortable and healthy.

Education law, state labor law and federal labor law address indoor environmental quality, violence prevention, crime prevention, emergency preparedness and safety training requirements. About 250 educators who attended the conference left with large notebooks full of regulations and reporting forms, along with the recommendation that they take the lead in using them.

"Back in the old days you'd sit with your adversaries and they'd say, 'We're not going to talk about it, We don't have to,'" said Albert Comfort, a NYSUT labor relations specialist in the Southern Tier. "Now they have to bargain, but often you're the ones who have to bring it up."

The conference has blossomed into a full-blown interdisciplinary educational resource. Workshops addressed everything from minimum restroom water temperature to the flu pandemic. Presenters discussed how to anticipate and prevent violent incidents by students with disabilities, how to use automated external defibrillators, identify gang activity, plan for hurricanes and chemical emergencies and recognize cancer threats.

Comfort's program, "Health and Safety 101," drew dozens of science teachers who were informed, for instance, how to respond when an employee has a reaction to a cleaning chemical. He and Katherine Kelleher, a NYSUT labor relations specialist in the Capital Region, addressed procedures for storing and using chemicals, reporting health concerns and training staff.

Participants learned there can be no retaliation against a school employee who reports a problem.

"I learned that if one person is affected by a problem or illness caused by the conditions, it's a problem we can pursue," said Lenhart. "This was a fantastic training I will definitely use when we start negotiations next year."

Health and safety issues often do not move to the forefront until a roof leaks or an ice storm threatens school buildings. At the Sweet Home district in western New York, for example, Alan Gryfe said that following a devastating ice storm last fall the district worried about roofs collapsing. Administrators asked building and maintenance staff to clear them.

"But if the roof collapses, what about the workers? They never thought of that," said Gryfe, who represents the Sweet Home Service Employees Association on the district's health and safety committee.

Union role

"School staffers don't have to memorize labor law," said NYSUT Vice President Kathleen Donahue. "But more and more, we're aware that, if there is a threat or concern, there is probably something written to address it, a process to follow, thanks largely to the involvement of the union."

Other workshops addressed enforcement of standards. At a session on school violence, some noted that staff consistently reporting incidents -paraprofessionals, in particular - can be afraid of losing their jobs by alerting administrators to weapons or physical threats.

Leading the workshop, Linda Vila-Passione, a violence prevention facilitator with the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, urged participants to be pro-active with colleagues and supervisors.

New York's Safe Schools Against Violence in Education legislation requires reporting within 24 hours so that locations, time and nature of dangerous incidents can be studied and mitigated. But Vila-Passione and teachers she addressed said the SAVE law so far has been less effective, in part because districts are reluctant to air problems.

"Staff knows what must be done and the administration is not listening - they want everything swept under the rug," said Vila-Passione. "Anything that will be done will be done because of the concerted effort (of staff)."

- Jane Gottlieb