Teachers, district at odds over Rancho Cotate High School gas leaks

A gas leak on the Rancho Cotate High School campus has become a contentious issue in the school district, with a number of teachers saying administrators mishandled it and put them and 1,500 students in peril.

District Superintendent Rob Haley said the campus has a long history of small gas leaks because of the school’s “aging infrastructure.” And he outlined a sequence of steps that he said the district has taken since Jan. 20 to remedy the problems, including repairing an earlier leak by replacing equipment.

“We absolutely followed standard procedure and kept safety in mind,” he said Wednesday. Rohnert Park’s top public safety official also said that because the leaks were outdoors they posed little risk, and that Haley handled the situation well.

But the teachers union - which has clashed repeatedly with Haley - plans to file a grievance, claiming the administration compromised the safety of students and staff.

“There’s a lot of concern because the district was so negligent, in that they willfully endangered the lives of everyone on campus for the better part of three weeks,” said Maha Gregoretti, president of the Rohnert Park Cotati Educators Association.

Gregoretti, a middle school teacher, reported the leak - after high school teachers told her about it - the night of Feb. 11. She alerted PG&E when she got to the campus that night to check out her colleagues’ reports, she said.

“I walked over there and I smelled the gas so I just called PG&E right there,” she said. “That’s what we all know to do; if we smell it in our house, we just call PG&E.”

The utility sent a technician whom she accompanied for several hours. She said he told her he detected leaks in several locations around the campus. PG&E records show the gas was shut off soon after midnight, spokesman Paul Moreno said.

“There were three distinct locations, indicating three different sources of natural gas,” Moreno said.

PG&E was called to the school Wednesday afternoon after repairs were completed, Rancho Principal Amie Carter said. The utility wanted to verify a pressure test had been done on the lines, and arranged to return today, Moreno said.

As a result of the repair work, gas was shut off to the campus for several days, which meant cafeteria workers prepared cold lunches for students Tuesday and Wednesday. The campus also had no heating, though the interruption in service coincided with unseasonably warm temperatures.

The latest round of issues relating to gas odors on campus started Jan. 20, when a “strong gas smell” outside the school’s weight room was reported, according to an account of the events Haley wrote for the school board.

Haley, in that summary, and Carter, in a Wednesday interview, described the breaches as “pinhole leaks.” One pipe examined since Feb. 11 had “very, very minute cracks” in it, Haley said Wednesday.

“There was never any danger or risk to anyone at all,” Carter said Wednesday afternoon.

But teachers who said they had complained about the leaks since Jan. 20 said the district had moved slowly and inadequately to deal with the problem, by relying on its contractor, Roberts Mechanical & Electrical, instead of calling PG&E from the start.

“Pinhole, gigantic, it’s a gas leak,” said Cindi Erickson, a ?special education teacher at the high school who told administrators she smelled gas on ?Jan. 26 and asked them to call PG&E. “Isn’t any kind of gas leak a danger?”

Moreno said the Feb. 11 call was the first PG&E had received about leaks on the high school campus.

The district owns its gas lines and relies on its own contractor to service them. PG&E delivers gas to the master meter, and the district distributes it to its facilities. Moreno said it is a common arrangement.

District administrators told staff and teachers on Feb. 3 the leaks had been repaired and were due to a failing pressure regulator. In his summary to trustees, Haley said that at that time, Roberts Mechanical had inspected the area for leaks and found no others.

Asked what the utility recommends when gas is smelled, Moreno said, “If you smell natural gas or suspect you smell it, leave and give us a call or call 911.” He said that advice would apply in situations such as at the school district, where an independent contractor maintains the system.

Asked why the district hadn’t called the utility, Haley said it had called PG&E in the past, but he disputed Moreno’s statement.

“They can say that they recommend that but that’s not consistent with their own website and that’s not consistent with practice,” he said. “Recommended is not required. And I’d love to see that in writing.”

Rohnert Park’s Public Safety Director Brian Masterson met Wednesday with Haley and said he came away comfortable that the superintendent had taken appropriate steps and that the alarm, though understandable, was overblown.

“My understanding, based on the history of the Ranch and the leaks they’ve had before, these are small leaks that don’t pose any direct hazard to the students or teachers or employees,” Masterson said.

“I think it’s good they are concerned,” Masterson said of the teachers. “We always want to err on the side of caution.”

Staff Writer Jeremy Hay blogs about education at extracredit.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach him at 521-5212 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jeremyhay.