Some members of the Bethlehem Area School Board expressed hesitation Monday about spending an estimated $23,000 on radon testing in 14 buildings this fall, given ongoing budgetary uncertainty.
The testing proposal, presented by district facilities chief Mark Stein during the board’s facilities committee meeting, followed a 2024 report claiming children in the district may have heightened exposure to the carcinogen.
“We last tested for this about 10 years ago, so it’s overdue,” Stein said. “Independent of the study, I think it’s a good time to say, ‘All right, let’s take the pulse.’ ”
The testing plan, if adopted at the Sept. 22 school board meeting, would be carried out in two phases. The first, which would cover nine of the district’s elementary schools, two middle schools, its main administrative building and transportation center, carries a price tag of $22,980. That would be in addition to the estimated $18,100 cost for air quality testing in the same buildings, for a total of $41,080.
The combined cost of air quality and radon testing for the district’s other buildings in 2016 was $24,593, or about $33,000 when adjusted for inflation. The radon testing would be carried out every three years, according to Stein.
“I would like to do a little more research on the radon,” board member Silagh White said. “We’re pinching pennies right now and I would prefer pinching more pennies.”
White proposed voting separately on radon and air quality testing as opposed to voting on them as a package, a question board President Michael Faccinetto said could be tackled at the next meeting.
Board member Winston Alozie pondered what would happen to the radon testing if the board were compelled to make budget cuts.
“If we get to a situation where we need to start making cuts, what does that look like for us?” he said, calling cuts a “realistic possibility.”
Federal budget cuts have already affected the district. Bethlehem Area lost $200,000 toward boosting academic achievement at Broughal Middle School just days before the school year began, according to Maureen Leeson, the district’s chief academic officer. Cuts may also affect the ability of Bethlehem Area high schoolers to take AP exams free of charge, she said. Pennsylvania’s budget impasse, now in its third month, has forced school districts further into the fiscal wilderness.
Faccinetto, the school board president, said it “doesn’t hurt” to test for radon because the cost would be “pennies on the dollar” compared with the district’s $373 million overall budget. He did, however, question Stein about the necessity of testing, given that many of the district’s elementary schools do not have basements. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends testing for radon in a building’s basement or its lowest level.
“There are no real good protocols,” Stein said. “The recommendation is anything in contact with the ground.”
While Pennsylvania does not require radon testing in schools, the Environmental Protection Agency recommends it. Most schools do not test for radon, according to the EPA.
Trebor Maitin is a freelance reporter.
