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KEANSBURG — A state recommendation to intensify the cleanup of 13 mold-infested classroom trailers means it will take months longer than originally anticipated for the district's 239 preschoolers to stop spending half their school day inside a gymnasium.
Trailer cleanup project grows
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More time needed for mold work
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 09/28/07
BY KEVIN PENTON
KEYPORT BUREAU
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KEANSBURG — A state recommendation to intensify the cleanup of 13 mold-infested classroom trailers means it will take months longer than originally anticipated for the district's 239 preschoolers to stop spending half their school day inside a gymnasium.
Officials from the state School Development Authority inspected the trailers outside Port Monmouth Road School earlier this month, said William Manoes, president of the Keansburg Board of Education.
Rather than simply replace the parts of the trailers with mold on them, as Keansburg had begun to do in recent days, the state wants to replace the trailers' entire floors, walls and plumbing fixtures, said Larry Hanover, an SDA spokesman.
SDA, which plans to hold a pre-bid meeting on the project on Monday, also wants to hire engineers to develop solutions for preventing the mold problem from recurring, Hanover said.
"We're going to work with the district to get the kids back into their classrooms as soon as possible," Hanover said.
The expanded project is expected to begin in November and be complete by January, Hanover said.
But Manoes cautioned that the project, estimated to cost at least $200,000, could take as long as April to complete. At the beginning of the academic year, which was delayed by two school days as Keansburg struggled to deal with the problem, district officials predicted students might attend classes inside the trailers within several weeks.
"Until those classrooms have been completely eradicated of mold, we're not going to allow any students to go in them," Manoes said.
All of the district's preschoolers are attending half-day sessions at the Joseph C. Caruso School. The students are spending half the day inside a classroom and half the day in the school's gymnasium.
Physical education classes for the preschool and Caruso students are being held outside the school, but Manoes said that will prove difficult as the weather cools.
"People talk about children being overweight," Manoes said. "This is certainly not going to help."
Tests in August of the air inside, under and immediately outside the trailers found higher than normal amounts of mold, district consultants have said.
The mold grew because of water leaks inside the trailers and because the structures are located on top of a recessed area where rainwater pools and leaves from nearby trees collect.
The dying leaves attract microscopic mushrooms that generate spores that can cause allergic reactions in some people, the consultants have said.
Kevin Penton: (732) 888-2617 or
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