2 West Village Schools Shuttered Due To Ventilation Problems

WEST VILLAGE, NY — Two schools that share the same building in the West Village will not reopen to staff Tuesday, after inspections revealed problems with the building's ventilation system.

Since last month, the city has been inspecting ventilation systems at all of its public school buildings to determine whether they are safe enough to reopen on Sept. 21. A properly working air filtering system helps prevent the spread of coronavirus, and the city agreed to inspect each building after teachers and principals raised safety concerns.

The inspections found that 21 schools in 10 buildings had ventilation problems in need of repair, including two schools located at 34 West 14th Street in the West Village.

The two schools in the building are the Harvest Collegiate High School and the Manhattan Occupational Training Center. The Manhattan Occupation Training Center has multiple locations under the same name throughout the city, and the ventilation issue is only related to the one located at 34 West 14th Street.

Staff, who had been slated to return Tuesday to prepare for the start of school, will instead work remotely until the repairs are complete. Some of those repairs will be complete "within the next couple of days," the city said, but the city is also looking for alternate spaces if the repairs aren't done by Sept. 21.

Patch report Nick Garber contributed to this report.

READ MORE: These NYC Schools' Reopenings Will Be Delayed Over Ventilation