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News, Education
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Moisture, Mold Found in King’s Highway Gym Walls
UPDATE The special committee investigating air quality at Westport’s King’s Highway Elementary School was told today that moisture and mold have been found behind the gymnasium walls.
“We’re facing remediation,” said Gavin Anderson, committee chair, adding that remediation efforts will begin next week.
Timing is critical, Anderson told a Town Hall meeting, because he wants to be able to give the school board by Wednesday a recommendation on whether to open the school on schedule Aug. 27.
Assistant Superintendent Nancy Harris, a member of the committee appointed July 30 by First Selectman Gordon Joseloff, said a Norwalk firm has already been contacted and is scheduled to carry out the remediation work over three days next week.
“We’re talking about one day to set up, one day to remove and one day to clean up,” said Gil Cormier of New Britain-based Occupational Risk Control Services, Inc., a consultant hired by the town to remediate mold and air quality concerns at the school.
“We have to try and develop a plan here to have a date when we can get the gymnasium back in operation because we won’t have it open by the start of school,” Anderson said.
Harris’ response left room for the possibility it might open on time.
“Obviously, we are not going to use the gym unless it’s safe,” she said.
Cormier said the mold found in the gym’s east and west walls was the result of moisture trapped behind the wallboards where it finds nutrients to grow. Most of the gym is located below ground level.
“We took moisture readings behind the east wall, and it was much wetter,” he said, “to the point where the bottom molding came off easily. So it’s been going on for an extended period of time.”
Cormier sent he sent mold samples to the lab and is awaiting results “as we speak.”
Next week’s mold and wall removal, he added, will employ the same precautions the abatement company used in removing the mold-infested pod from the campus last week.
All of the materials to be removed will be covered in a sealant, he said, and a negative air pressure system will be in place so contamination does not spread to adjacent classrooms and other parts of the main building.
“We need to be very careful to monitor those areas that are immediately upstairs,” Anderson said..
Cormier also recommended that all of the gym equipment be cleaned with an antiseptic solution and that it no longer be stored below grade.
Also discussed were samples taken in the school’s two modular classrooms, which had higher mold readings in the carpets directly on top of cement slabs as opposed to those on wooden flooring.
Regarding the school’s carpets, Cormier suggested that it might not be necessary to rip them all out, but to rigorously power vacuum them.
“Can it guarantee?” he asked about all children still feeling the effects of some mold.
“No, because every child can have a different sensitivity. Eventually, the school system is looking at removing all of the carpets.”
Disclosure of moisture and mold behind the gym walls followed concerns expressed earlier by committee members about the gym because of its location below ground level.
Anderson said there was a positive in the mold and moisture finding.
“I don’t want to be alarmist, but I think you should think of the gymnasium and what we are finding here in fact as a positive thing,” he said. “If there is water running down behind a wall, we know about it now.”
Anderson said the committee would be investigating the source of the moisture.
“There are a number of places where the water could be coming from and we need to find those out as well,” he said. “There’s no point in sealing up a wall and then letting the water run and creating further problems.”
Joseloff appointed the committee in response to more than 100 parental complaints that there was evidence of illnesses among students which they suspected was linked to air quality issues at the school.
Mold in the portable classroom demolished last week had first been discovered in September 2006. (See WestportNow Aug. 8, 2007)
Comments: Comment Policy
Glad that this additional mold was found, hope every single room is being checked, even behind walls, above ceilings, below floors. For all parents and teachers concerned about health effects from school mold, please visit http://www.schoolmoldhelp.org.
I certainly hope ALL the schools get this treatment
A few year’s ago some classrooms at Long Lots had mode problems, some areas of the school still has water issues.
Time to call for a total mold review in all the schools.
I join Ms. Brinchman in hoping that every aspect of every room and the entire ventilation system at KHS is checked, tested thoroughly, and remediated of mold before children and school staff are let into that building for another school year.
Why would it even be a possibility that carpeting would remain at KHS now that mold has been found in some of it? Why would it even be a consideration that children would use the gym before (or while) it is remediated when there have already been 100 parental complaints that children have been made sick and they suspect the school building made them so?
Sick kids can’t learn. Sick teachers can’t teach. Their good health comes first.
As residents, we entrust the health and well-being of our children and ourselves to our town leaders. I say to those leaders: We are in your hands - you hold us in a voluntary mutual commitment that you will protect us. In return, we will follow your leadership and respect and trust your representation and the decisions you make on our behalf.
When our political and institutional leaders, when our elected representatives and our public employees, betray that trust and allow our children or ourselves to walk into harm’s way, and that betrayal is discovered, the social contract - our faith in each other’s goodness and mutual care - that binds us together in shared trust and obligation is destroyed.
We need to take good care of each other so that we each remain fully human and we are cared for in return.
I hope that any rooms in other school buildings in town that share the same characteristics of the sick rooms at KHS are investigated and remediated with the same care because the same conditions in other buildings will result in the same problems - mold and attendant risk to the health of children and teachers at our schools.
Sick schools make sick teachers and kids. It is the most basic responsibility of the schools and the town to be precautionary and protect the health of the children, teachers, and staff who use town property.
When parents send their kids off to school each day, they want to know, first and foremost, that their children are safe.
I don’t know one parent who would play the odds when it comes to their child’s health. I don’t know one parent who would want our town leaders to be anything less than precautionary.
Ms. Taylor, you are so right, and so eloquent in expressing the expectations of parents. As the Director of a national, educational nonprofit, The Center for School Mold Help, I can tell you that there are no enforced laws in this country, to date, to protect children in school environments from mold or sick buildings. In the future, there may be. But now, it is up to each parent, town, city and school board to insist on healthy schools and to find these for their children. We do not recommend that parents send their children to schools that are unhealthy. Parents must learn to inspect their children’s schools and look for signs of water damage. A good link to learn about this is found on the EPA site: Mold Course http://www.epa.gov/mold/moldcourse/index.html. Any sign of dampness is a red flag. A non-mold problem, but one that can lead to a sick school is windows that don’t open and extensive use of rugs, especially those that aren’t non-toxic. Students and school staff who became sick in this school may, unfortunately, be sensitized for life - they can become very, very sensitive to molds and chemicals and thus have a hard time returning even to places where remediation has been conducted, as not all contaminants are possible to remove. Parents, monitor how the remediation is being done, you can look at our Remediation page on http://www.schoolmoldhelp.org and see the steps that should be conducted, at minimum. There are few or no laws in many states regarding remediation and that is also a problem. Lastly, make the school district provide you with the full report and publish it so the public can see the data and full report, the types of mold found, to the species (not genus) level, and the quantity. Then, the health effects of the molds found may be double-checked, using the links to Fungal Glossaries on our site. The types of mold matter a great deal when it comes to health effects. In our country, with mold proliferating in our schools due to aging, defective and/or poorly maintained buildings, parents must be vigilant. Exposure to molds can ruin one’s health and future. I know, I am totally disabled due to mold in two schools where I taught. It didn’t take a long time, either, to become very ill. Parents, educate yourselves. We provide a lot of background information so you can do so, at http://www.schoolmoldhelp.org.
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