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"Normantown Elementary School Principal Shirley Hupp surveys one of the classrooms contaminated by mold beneath the floor tiles. The mold itself is a health hazard, and the floor has been structurally weakened." (Elementary school gives up classrooms in fight against mold, Charleston Daily Mail, August 30, 2007)
http://www.dailymail.com/story/News/2007083058/Elementary-school-gives-up-classrooms-in-fight-against-mold/
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Elementary school gives up classrooms in fight against mold
http://www.dailymail.com/story/News/2007083058/Elementary-school-gives-up-classrooms-in-fight-against-mold/
Kelly L. Holleran
Daily Mail staff
Thursday August 30, 2007
NORMANTOWN - It's a classic West Virginia school consolidation struggle, and one the community of Normantown wants badly to win.
The town's elementary school, originally a high school, was built in the 1920s. Only 95 students in grades kindergarten through six are enrolled there now.
As if age and enrollment weren't challenge enough, the school's main building sits in a flood plain.
In 2003, the most recent flooding, the bottom floors were covered in water 18 inches deep.
Last September a custodian noticed a squishing noise as he walked across the floor tiles.
There was not only dampness, but something far more sinister.
Mold.
Then-Principal Monica Beane moved all the bottom-floor classes to the two higher floors for the remainder of the year.
But this year there are no classes on any floor of the main building.
"It's for safety and precaution," said Shirley Hupp, who is now the school's principal. "When you have asthmatic kids, you just don't know."
The school's 95 children are housed in half a dozen smaller structures spread across the school's lawn. Pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students are on the first floor of a small, two-story building. A few teachers have offices upstairs.
The first-graders are using the first-floor of the small, two-story cafeteria building.
The second- and third-graders are in yet another small building close to the highway, U.S. 33.
Hupp and the school secretary work from what was once the school's Little League building. All the sports equipment used to be stored there.
Older students will move into a portable classroom on Monday, but this week they have been attending makeshift classrooms in the school gym.
Administrators believe the gym, which is attached to the main building, is OK because the ground beneath it is sloped enough to drain water and prevent the growth of mold.
The fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students are separated into two classes of 21 pupils each.
One class of fourth- and fifth-graders sits on one side of a 6-foot-tall partition, and a class of fifth- and sixth-graders on the other side.
The gym floor has been covered with temporary carpeting. Two huge fans near the entrance of each of the gym's two doors blow air into the room, which lacks air conditioning.
The bleachers are pushed out of the way. Stacks of textbooks line rows of bleachers and also are piled on the stage.
To help students and teachers stay cool, Hupp provided bottled water on the first day of school. Since then, parents have been taking turns bringing in water.
In the afternoons, students get cool snacks.
For this week only, if it gets too hot in the gym, teachers can move their classes to the preschool room, which is air-conditioned. Preschoolers do not start until next week.
Teachers and administrators communicate with hand-held radios becuase there is no intercom to connect the buildings.
Parents want the mold problem to be fixed.
It should have been addressed as soon as it was discovered last year, said Misty Pritt of Rosedale, parent of two children who attend the school.
"We do not want our children back into the school until it is fixed," she said. "We are the people who moved the
furniture out of that facility so the children wouldn't have to be with the mold."
Her children already have a 45-minute bus ride to school, she said. If a new, consolidated school were to be built in the county seat of Glenville, their ride would be more than twice that long.
Pritt said there wouldn't be much left to Normantown without its school.
"We want our children to attend a school where they are familiar with the teachers," she said.
Others parents feel the same, the principal said.
"They have a lot of pride," Hupp said. "There are some great parents in this community. They know what they want and they want to keep Normantown."
Hupp returned to the school as principal in July. She was born and raised in Stumptown, a two-minute drive from
Normantown. When she was young, the school housed kindergarten through eighth-graders. Her father went to high school there.
Like school officials in communities across the state, Gilmer County Schools Superintendent Ed Toman faces a dilemma.
"How can we best serve our kids?" he said. "Normantown is in a flood plain. Do you repair a place in the flood plain?
Or do we want to revamp what we have in Gilmer County?"
Toman is considering asking the state School Building Authority to fund one new elementary school if Gilmer County could somehow pay for another.
If that happened, Gilmer would close its four existing elementaries.
The Gilmer system is the smallest in the state with only 973 children in all of its schools last year. Because it is such a small district, there is not a lot of funding available.
Toman has obtained estimates for repair costs at Normantown Elementary.
One firm estimated $500,000, but that would include fixing the second and third floors, which are warped and sloped.
Another firm estimated $150,000, but that would take care of only the mold. If the company has to remove asbestos, the price would be higher.
The new portable classroom building was not ready for students by the first day of school.
The structure's two units arrived at the school on Aug. 22 and 23. Since then, workers have been working non-stop to get it ready for the students. Now the 24-by-60-foot structure stands almost completed in the school's parking lot.
Fire marshals still must inspect the units, and classroom furniture must be moved in. If that happens by Friday, students and teachers will report there for class on Monday.
"We're just going to work with what we've got," Hupp said.
Contact writer Kelly Holleran at
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or 348-4850.
Fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students gather up their belongings to get ready for lunch at Normantown Elementary School.
Because of mold discovered in the main building of the Gilmer County school, classes are no longer being held there. Younger students are in smaller structures on the school property, and on Monday, older students will move to new portable classrooms.
Normantown Elementary School Principal Shirley Hupp surveys one of the classrooms contaminated by mold beneath the floor tiles.
The mold itself is a health hazard, and the floor has been structurally weakened.
The main building of Normantown Elementary School is no longer open to students. Instead, they are learning in buildings scattered around the school’s campus.
Mold leads to classroom closings at Daufuskie school
http://www.islandpacket.com/front/story/6632658p-5908935c.html
From Staff Reports
Published Thursday, August 23, 2007
DAUFUSKIE ISLAND — Classrooms at Daufuskie Island School have been closed after they were found to be infected with mold, according to a school district news release.
The students have been relocated to the library building near the main building where they will attend classes until the rooms are safe, which should be early next week, the release said.
Mold grew behind the walls of the school after an air conditioning unit apparently leaked. The moisture fed the mold. The highest concentrations were of penicillium/aspergillus types with others, including stachybotrys, appearing in lower amounts, the release said.
The affected walls have been removed and replaced, and the defective air conditioner replaced.
“No one will go back into those classrooms until all the mechanical systems are functioning properly, all the scientific air samplings indicate a safe indoor air quality, and we’ve done a complete anti-microbial scrub-down of the rooms from top to bottom,” said Larry Wilson, district executive director of operations.
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Teachers, parents stay away from Daufuskie classroom tainted by mold
By PETER FROST
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843-706-8169
Published Friday, August 24, 2007
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DAUFUSKIE ISLAND -- Parents and teachers concerned about mold at Daufuskie Island Elementary aren't going to classes today, despite the school district's assertion that lessons should go on in the library next door.
After teachers discovered last week at least three types of mold behind a bookshelf and in a closet, the district ordered the two classrooms closed.
School officials say a leaky air conditioner caused high concentrations of mold to grow behind the walls and under the floor.
On Aug. 15, classes were moved to the school's library, housed in a building steps away from the main building.
The 18 students enrolled in the school returned to their classrooms Monday and remained there until Thursday, parents and teachers said, when the district again moved children into the library so workers could repair and clean the area.
But mold was found in the library, as well, making that building unsafe for students, said parents and teachers.
"We're all extremely concerned," said Kathleen Lofton, who pulled her two students out of school Thursday. "No one is going to send their kids back until the district does what it said it was going to do."
The mold, said district spokesman John Williams, is isolated to the area near the malfunctioning air conditioner, and there's no reason to believe there is any contamination in the library.
In a release sent to teachers late Wednesday, the district said it would replace the air conditioner, repair and replace portions of the wall and floor, and perform an anti-microbial wipe-down of the classrooms.
But parents and teachers said that as of Thursday evening, they've been the only ones doing any cleaning. They said a teacher had to buy disinfectant and cleaning equipment.
The district, they said, hasn't clearly communicated the problems.
"We're all really upset that we were not informed about any details whatsoever about what's going on at the school," said David Helmuth, whose daughter, Katie, is a student there. "Until we feel like we're fully informed, there's no point in taking the risk with our children's health."
Williams acknowledged the district "could have made a more concerted effort to contact parents directly."
He said the district is spending $10,000 on repairs, and a contractor will work today on cleaning.
Results are due today on air quality tests.
Students should be able to return to their classrooms early next week, he said.
"We're not closing the school down, and we have a contingency plan in place with using the library," Williams said. "We feel it's safe. Employees are expected to report to their workstations. Period."
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