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Parents were fixated on safety during a meeting that was intended to discuss the upcoming expansion at Lakewood Elementary last night.

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The meeting was originally scheduled for 6:30 p.m., but school and city staff met with parents half an hour beforehand to discuss the steps the city is taking to discover why students have been complaining of headaches and nausea. At this point there aren’t any solid answers to be had.

Parents were especially wary after experiencing a carbon monoxide leak last spring, but Andre Riley, the spokesperson for Dallas ISD, said officials have checked the school for high levels of carbon monoxide, dioxide, humidity and volatile organic compounds (VOC), and so far they haven’t found anything. He says they’ll continue to monitor the school with a data logger that collects information every 30 minutes.

Parents still had safety on the brain during the following meeting about the school’s upcoming expansion. They asked several questions about whether or not construction would uncover asbestos and how students would be protected from that, and one parent wondered if it would be possible for ductwork to be added to the construction agenda.

Staffers assured the parents construction at the school would be happening away from the students and primarily after hours. There will also be a consultant on hand to test anything that could contain asbestos. At this point it’s not in the plans to replace the existing ductwork systems.

If all goes as planned construction will begin this summer. The school has been discussing an approximately 45,000-square-foot addition and 45,000-square-foot renovation to the historic 1951 Lakewood Elementary since at least 2013. The intention is to replace the portables by adding 10 new classrooms and new parking.

The first phase of construction should take about a year, wrapping up during the summer of 2017. For more information, go to the Lakewood Elementary Expansion Foundation (LEEF) website.