By VICKI MORTIMER

Although a high number of children living in the Northgate School District may have asthma, there is no reason to believe the district’s schools have caused or contributed to the problem, according to school officials.

Citizens questioned Northgate officials at Monday’s school board meeting about a WTAE news report that stated that some 37 percent of the students in the Northgate School District have asthma, the highest percentage among school districts in Allegheny County. According to the WTAE report, the national and state average is 11 percent.

Parent Mark Robinson asked the board where the 37 percent figure came from and whether the board was looking into the situation. Superintendent Dr. Reggie Bonfield told Robinson that the most recent figure for the district is 27 percent, which is still a concern. Board member Timothy Makatura noted the large difference in the figures and asked whether they were accurate. Bonfield said he believed the figures came from the district, which is asked to submit health data to the state each year. The figures submitted by the district came from the information provided by parents regarding their children's health, he said.

Bonfield stated that the asthma rate is a community issue, affected by many factors, including obesity, cleanliness in the home, smoking, and general air quality. He said that the district had no information that the schools could be the cause of the problem, and that the information he had was that this was "very unlikely."

Bonfield added that the student mentioned in the WTAE report, who had to leave school in an ambulance many times, lived in Bellevue, but did not go to school in the Northgate School District

Robinson said that he was told by parents that students have complained that the schools are damp, and that it was hard to breathe in some of the science classrooms and music rooms.

Board member Shannon Smithey, who said that she has three children with asthma, said that she had contacted the WTAE reporter and asked if he had any information or evidence that school conditions were involved in the high asthma rate. She said that she was told that no one had made any suggestions to him that school conditions were responsible for the problem.

Smithey said that there are some things that could be done better at Northgate, such as forcing parents and the public to quit smoking just outside the doors of the school buildings. Also, she said, the district could better enforce the five minute idling limits for buses and other vehicles near the schools.