Vermont superintendents tell House panel PCBs in schools require state funding, not short-term fixes

Superintendents from across Vermont told the House Education Committee on Jan. 16 that polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) found in school buildings are costing districts millions, disrupting instruction and requiring clearer, sustained state funding.

The testimony centered on H.542, a bill under consideration that would change the state pproach to PCB testing. Witnesses described large local expenditures for temporary measures, repeated air and material testing, and uncertainty about whether the state will cover permanent remediation.

"Hope is not a strategy," said Elaine Collins, superintendent of Burke Country Supervisory Union, describing repeated mitigation at her high school that began with carbon filters and moved through polyurethane encapsulation and expanded mitigation plans. Collins said the district spent about $500,000 across several schools on quarterly air sampling, consultant fees and a leased modular classroom; the high school mitigation alone later grew to a planned $5.2 million and, across five…