School Mold Infestations

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School Mold Infestations News

High school closed for mold remediation
Cleaning and Maintenance Management Online, 9/17/02
MARYVILLE, TN — After closing Heritage High School for 20 days due to mold infestation, remediation is underway in all 51 classrooms. According to The Daily Times, some students had reportedly become ill due to the mold.
Work includes:
Replacing damaged insulation and ceiling tile,
Inspecting and cleaning heating and air conditioning units and
Replacing carpet with vinyl tile.

Mold may scrap $57 million building being purchased by school district
Cleaning and Maintenance Management Online, 9/23/02
SAN FERNANDO VALLEY, CA — A deal between the Los Angeles Unified School District to purchase the Department of Water and Power office building for $50 million last year, has stalled due to evere mold infestation. So severe, in fact, that the building may have to be torn down, the LA Daily News reported. Now city officials are suing the contractors that built the building for $20 million.

The building was built in 1992 for $57 million, the Daily News reported. The suit charges that faulty
workmanship and inferior construction materials provided by McCarthy Western Constructors Inc. and other contractors have caused water damage.

The 40-acre land may still be purchased so a new school can be built

Volunteers move out contents of mold infested school in Prescott
{Published Monday, September 23, 2002 8:06:00 AM CDT). Associated Press

         PRESCOTT, Wis. -- A caravan of volunteer trucks, trailers and semi trucks spent part of the weekend moving the contents of a middle school closed for mold infestation to a new school about 20 miles away. People showed up early Saturday morning at Prescott Middle School to move desks, books, shelves, globes and maps to Ellsworth.
The Prescott school is closed indefinitely because of mold found in 12 of its classrooms.
         "There is great community support here," Prescott Superintendent Roger Hulne said. "The move began at 9 a.m., and half an hour later more than 100 names appeared on the volunteers' sign-in sheet."
The sixth through eighth-graders have been taking field trips since the school closed, but officials expect them to resume classes at the Ellsworth school as soon as Tuesday.
The Ellsworth School Board offered to rent the unused second floor of its junior high school for $4,000 a month. Although many volunteers agreed the situation wasn't ideal, they thought the move to Ellsworth would be positive. Debbie Eggers, mother of a Prescott Middle School student and wife of one of the school's teachers, said Ellsworth is the best alternative.
She said the school board looked at churches and other schools in the area, but the Ellsworth school met their needs the best. "It's something that has to be done," said Eggers. "It's just too bad we couldn't pass the referendum before this." Referendums to improve or replace the school have been defeated several times in the last few years.

Parent's test raises concern at school
HILTON HEAD ISLAND: Father's science project calls air quality -- and security -- into question.
By Stephanie Broadbent Carolina Morning News , Sept. 25, 2002.

          A parent with a petri dish cultivated a concern about mold at Hilton Head Elementary School that is costing the school district thousands of dollars. Armed with supplies purchased from a "mold lab" found advertised on the Internet, a student's father allegedly sneaked around his child's classroom, hiding petri dishes earlier this year. Then he went back to collect the samples and sent them to the lab, said Beaufort County Schools spokesman John Williams. The lab allegedly tested the samples, said it found mold and sold the parent mold-killing grapefruit-seed-extract misters that he installed in his child's classroom, without telling anyone. The misters were found a short time later and removed, Williams said. The parent then shared the mold report with school staff and other parents. That concern prompted the school district to hire AAA Environmental, to test for mold.
        "Our interest was whether or not the petri dishes were sterile to begin with, what controls there were to make sure they weren't contaminated," Williams said.
AAA Environmental of Spartanburg did its first check of the school in April. It found "no elevated levels of mold," but made recommendations, which included cleaning carpet and air conditioning coils. The school began implementing the advice immediately, Williams said, and asked the company to return this week for more extensive testing.
         The latest testing, which began Tuesday and is scheduled to end today, will cost the school district $10,000 to $12,000, Williams said. It also included testing in one area of Hilton Head Middle School where rats nested in a ceiling over the summer. The rodents were exterminated and the area cleaned, but the school district wanted to make sure the air was clean.
          AAA Environmental is accredited in a wide range of environmental consulting service and has been used by Beaufort County Schools for several years. They'll be honest, not just give the school district a pat on the back, Williams said.
         Recent air quality investigations by the company at Battery Creek High School led the Board of Education to approve a major duct-cleaning project and installation of a new dehumidifying system that cost $2.7 million.
       "We use certified, accredited experts to test the air quality across the Beaufort County School District," said Superintendent of Schools Herman Gaither. "If there's a problem, we'll address it openly and publicly."
         Results from the air quality tests taken this week will likely not be back for several weeks but will be shared with the public when they are returned, Williams said.
        The parent's actions earlier this year didn't only raise concerns about mold, but security at the school.
        Although the father was known to those at the school and parents are allowed full access to their children's classrooms, even well-meaning parents can take actions that might hurt students, Williams said.
       "I'm not one to tend toward paranoia, but after Sept. 11, 2001, we should all be a little more concerned about the appearance of petri dishes containing unknown substances, as well as aerosol misters squirting out who knows what, especially in the classroom," he said.
        The concern wasn't about the father, but anyone else who might have had access to the petri

dishes or misters he apparently purchased by mail, Williams said.
        "It's not like we had an 'intruder alert' situation," he said. "But we need our parents to know that their best intentions may harm other students."
        It doesn't even take tampering to cause a problem. There is also the possibility that another student might have an allergic reaction to misters like the one put in the classroom, he said.
         The child's father was apparently motivated by the child's recurring respiratory problems. Williams said he doesn't know if the child is still enrolled at the school.
         Hilton Head Elementary has 2,075 enrolled students and the school has averaged 11 illness-related absences per day since school began Aug. 12.
        "We take very seriously any concerns about students' health and indoor air quality," Gaither said. "At the same time, an average of 11 students sick per day, for all types of illnesses, out of almost 2,100 children is a good indicator we have a clean, healthy school and very healthy youngsters."

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Indoor Air Quality and Pollution