A vote passed to use surplus funds to remove hazardous inks and solutions used in graphics.
By Gail Geraghty
Staff Writer

PARIS – SAD 17 and Oxford Hills Technical School have been working to remove all hazardous chemicals from classrooms.

On Thursday, the OHTS Board of Directors voted to take $5,000 from surplus to pay for the disposal of inks and solutions used by Graphic Arts students at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School.

“We’re talking about solvents, inks, anything with an oil base” that hasn’t been used for a while, said Tech School Director Thomas Cope. “From now on, we’ll be ordering just enough to use in the year.”

SAD 17, for its part, has spent around $14,000 removing hazardous chemicals from the science labs and art classroom at the high school and Oxford Hills Middle School, SAD 17 Business Manager Cathy Fanjoy said.

“This wasn’t a regularly budgeted item. Some of these are older supplies we’ve had for years,” Fanjoy said. “We’ve been implementing a safety program over the past couple of years and this is one area we felt we could do better in,” she added.

The state Department of Education, in partnership with the Department of Environmental Protection, instituted a Chemical Clean-out Program for Maine schools in May 2003.

The focus was on mercury and old unwanted hazardous chemicals.

Fanjoy said SAD 17 Safety Coordinator Ronald Deegan has been working with Chem-Safe, a chemical disposal company that works with schools and small businesses throughout New England.

“All the departments have been trained on proper storage” of hazardous chemicals, she said. The DEP’s chemical clean-out program provides staff not only with training on storage, but on proper chemical purchase, use and disposal, with a focus on reducing the use of chemicals and the generation of waste, according to project literature.

Cope said the district and the tech school has had a safety committee for the past three years, and has done an inventory of all chemicals used at the middle and high schools. Thermometers and blood-pressure cuffs in the tech school’s allied health class have been changed from mercury-based to digital, he said.

Cope also said the graphics arts teachers will be purchasing inks and solvents that are more environmentally friendly than those used in the past.