The new, strict state fire code could cause disruption next fall in schools which house first-grade and kindergarten classes above or below ground level.
The new code states that young children must have direct access to the outside, either by being on ground level or via a staircase leading out of the building exclusively for their use. Classes will have to be moved if a school does not conform to the rules.
Full enforcement of the new code, designed to overhaul fire safety in response to the fire at The Station nightclub, which killed 100 people, will begin on Feb. 20, the first anniversary of The Station disaster. But in late December, the state Fire Safety Code Board of Appeal and Review granted a "blanket variance" until September, giving schools time to make the changes.
"It was to buy time," William Howe, inspections chief for the state fire marshal's office, said, "rather than do it in the middle of the school year."
The statewide variance is the byproduct of turmoil that the Middletown School District has been wrestling with since last September. Citing the coming change in regulations, the Middletown Fire Department informed the School Department that four kindergarten classes -- being conducted on the second floor of the administration building because of a space shortage in area elementary schools -- would have to be moved. The Fire Department later changed its position, and supported the School Committee's decision to apply to the state for a waiver.
Middletown officials said they suspected their Aquidneck Island community would not be the only one in the state facing this problem. The statewide variance, Deputy Fire Chief David Littlefield said, "saves other towns and cities from having to address this issue individually. It just gives them another option."
The new fire regulations are similar to ones that already exist for private daycare centers, said Elizabeth Burke Bryant, executive director of the nonprofit Kids Count. In order to get a license to open an early-childhood facility, she said, babies and toddlers must be kept on the first floor with direct access to the outside.
The new law for kindergarten and first grade is a continuation on that theme. For the safety of everyone, the youngest children in the building should be the first out in an emergency, fire-safety officials say.
"Kids that age . . . don't negotiate stairs that quickly," Howe said. "They don't want them run over or holding up other kids."
As many schools face new testing standards as well as budget and space problems, moving students to safer locations will be one more demand.
"These are competing, very important public-policy interests," Bryant said.
While no one has argued with the necessity of the new rules, Middletown officials say moving 54 students to other schools already at capacity will pose problems.
Michael Crowley, a Middletown School Committee member, surmised that in places like Newport, Providence or Woonsocket, which have older buildings, more changes will need to be made. "They have old, extremely well-built schools," Crowley said, but they may not comply to new standards.
"We will all have to find a solution."
To contact Jenny Holland, phone (401) 253-1200 or e-mail jholland [at] projo.com
