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1200 students have been placed in portable classrooms in Salinas, CA. That is the good news. The bad news is that, according to the article below, the school district doesn't seem to understand proper mold remediation or the dangers of mold exposure (SMH).
Mold sends 1,200 Salinas students to portable classrooms
http://thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080107/NEWS01/80107018/1002
By SUNITA VIJAYAN
The Salinas Californian
Hundreds of Salinas elementary students returned from winter break on Monday to new classrooms: the wooden, portable kind.
Four schools in the Alisal Union School District — Cesar E. Chavez, Creekside, Dr. Oscar F. Loya and John Steinbeck — will spend the rest of the school year undergoing mold removal work.
“The mold was found a couple of years ago, and we need to fix that,” said Alisal Union School District Superintendent Esperanza Zendejas on Monday. “Before the rains hit, it’s imperative we deal with some of the classrooms … (and) place students in areas away from these classrooms, so we can begin fixing them.”
The 960-square-foot portables were installed at Cesar E. Chavez shortly before Thanksgiving, relocating 16 classes. Creekside and Dr. Oscar F. Loya schools received 20 and 7 portables, respectively, in early December.
About 1,200 students at the three schools have been relocated to the portables, Zendejas said, and the district anticipates relocating some classrooms this spring at John E. Steinbeck school, as well.
While mold can’t be seen from within the classrooms, it has grown inside the walls and could lead to respiratory illnesses in staff, students and visitors.
On Monday morning, fourth grade teacher Ashley Ireland’s students at Creekside Elementary School said her students didn’t mind the change.
“(The students) are pretty excited to be in a new classroom,” Ireland said during the school’s recess, where children’s laughter and yells echoed off the sturdy-looking portables placed in the school’s cramped asphalt play area.
Creekside Elementary School Principal Julio Sierra said that other than a slight hitch with rewiring faculty equipment, the move to portable space has gone smoothly.
But it’s still not an ideal situation, Zendejas said.
“Anytime you have to move a classroom from one location to another … it impacts the students,” she said. “We’ve done everything to minimize that disruption.”
Zendejas said the 12-school district plans to apply for money from the state to help cover its mold removal costs, which could run into the millions of dollars. Bids for contractors could go out as soon as March, following completion of an environmental report. Workers must tear down the classroom walls to determine the extent of the mold growth.
“There’s no cost estimate yet,” said project manager Kent Munro of Rancho Cucamonga-based PCM3 Construction Management, which handled the installation of the portables. “Until the walls are opened up, we don’t know exactly what we’ll find.”
Read more in tomorrow's Salinas Californian.
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Reader comments and feedback for the
Mold sends 1,200 Salinas students to portable classrooms
NoMoreSchoolMold
Joined: 08 Jan 2008
Posts: 1
Location: La Mesa, CA
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 8:30 am Post subject: "The Mold Was Found A COUPLE YEARS AGO" ?????
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As the Director of the educational nonprofit, The Center for School Mold Help, I invite the parents, teachers, and school administration in this district to visit our very informative website at www.schoolmoldhelp.org. Already, several major red flags are seen in this article. Our Information -Mold Remediation and Sick Building Symptoms pages would be of high interest, in addition to the rest of our site.
I am concerned that:
#1. Mold was found "a couple of years ago" - and nothing effective was done, leaving the staff and students to be exposed? That is like saying, we found anthrax a couple years ago. For shame. This shows ignorance of the fact that mold produces biotoxins harmful enough to be used in biowarfare.
#2. The walls will be torn apart to determine the extent of the mold, possibly without a remediation containment? By a construction company? In other words, not by mold professionals? If so, major mistake. This will make people far sicker - and contaminate everything in the buildings.
#3. The materials in those classrooms are contaminated NOW and must be specially cleaned (nonporous) or thrown out (paper products). These should not follow the children into the portables. But with the lack of appreciation for the dangers already, I would imagine they have transferred the materials.
#4. There is, apparently, no understanding of the extent that mold can harm health. It "could" cause respiratory illness is grossly understating the facts. For a more complete list, see the portion of a study Mixed Mold Mycotoxicosis, found on our site, entitled "The 38 Most Common Symptoms of Mold Illness", on our Sick Building Symptoms page. Undoubtedly, people are already ill - both school staff and children. It is not possible that many aren't. They may not connect it to the mold, nor may their physicians - yet.
The above is typical of uninformed school districts. In the absence of laws regulating school health and environments, they are left to their own devices and this is the result. Visiting our site at www.schoolmoldhelp.org will help the community and staff monitor whether this district is going to make things worse or clean it up. Making major mistakes will cost health and lots more money, as the buildings may need to be demolished if the mold is not cleaned up properly.
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