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Mold found at elementary school, again

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

(Updated 11:28 pm)

By J. Brian Ewing
Staff Writer

GREENSBORO — Guilford County Schools officials hope they have resolved mold issues at Oak Ridge Elementary School after students and faculty complained for nearly four years about respiratory problems and other health concerns.

Workers are removing rubber-backed carpeting from four classrooms after mold was discovered under the carpet last month. Carpet previously was removed from two other rooms. Classrooms are being moved temporarily until the carpet can be replaced with vinyl tile.

The school sent a letter to parents this week about the mold and cleanup. Some parents have pulled their children out of the school because of the problems.

Kim Delahanty’s daughter, Kate, will be on medical leave for the rest of this school year. Kate, a fourth-grader at Oak Ridge, began to have bad headaches, a sore throat and red eyes while at school.

Delahanty thought it was allergies at first, but after prescription drugs didn’t help she started to ask questions and didn’t like what she heard. Kate’s class was one where mold was found. She and her classmates were moved to another part of the school, but her headaches persisted.

Leo Bobadilla , the school system’s chief operations officer, said the system has spent nearly $600,000 addressing mold since complaints began at the school in 2005. That year, the school system installed a $500,000 dehumidifying system and removed carpet with mold. Since then, workers have cleaned mold from the heating and air conditioning system and had the carpets cleaned with anti-microbial cleaner.

Results of additional indoor air quality tests are expected soon. Bobadilla said he will address whatever issues are discovered in that testing.

With complaints still coming in, Bobadilla met with officials from the state Department of Public Instruction, the Department of Health and Human Services and industrial hygiene experts. Through these meetings, the mold was found under the carpeting. The culprit: a leaking roof.

Bobadilla estimates that two-thirds of the system’s 120 schools need significant maintenance work, including dozens of schools with leaking roofs.

Getting those problems fixed could become more difficult if county commissioners cut as much from school maintenance funding as is proposed, Bobadilla said. County Manager Brenda Jones Fox has proposed a $4 million capital projects budget for the schools, $3 million less than the current budget.

“Certainly, you’re not going to see as many roof replacement projects,” Bobadilla said.

County Commissioner Kirk Perkins said commissioners have a long way to go before approving a budget.

He said he thinks that the cuts to maintenance funding are too deep and that he expects to review that recommendation closely.

“I’m not in favor of cutting that really anymore,” Perkins said. “I’m not in favor of costing us more in the long run.”

He warned that finding money for maintenance could mean funding cuts elsewhere.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com

Accompanying Photos

Margaret Baxter (News & Record)

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nctropics

May 12, 2009 - 4:40 pm EDT

A troubling story --- four years of respiratory problems and health concerns in a school still have not been resolved. Blame placed on moldy carpet caused by a leaky roof. How old is this school and what happened there four years ago that resulted in a host of health concerns? What is the explanation for the mold found in the heating and air conditioning? Where was the unit purchased and how old is it? Why wasn't the carpet immediately removed throughout the building instead of cleaning with an anti-microbial cleaner? That money and energy should have been spent ripping out ALL of the carpet in the building instead of selectively removing it. Not quite the scalpel approach, but that would have at least eliminated the carpet as part of the problem. Who is making these $$-wasting decisions? Has the roof been leaking for the past four years? A $500K dehumidification system purchase doesn't stop a roof from leaking and certainly hasn't solved the mold problem, but someone's pocket was certainly lined. After four years the best conclusion for respiratory problems and mold growing happily under a rubber lined carpet is a leaky roof? After treating a mold with an anti-microbial, does it seem logical that the mold has developed a resistance to the antimicrobial agent? It's come back, hasn't it? Were industrial hygiene experts consulted earlier?
If 80 out of 120 schools need significant maintenance work, what the blasted have the funds been spent on in the past? Why publish an incomplete article --- I'm sure I am not the only person who wants to know what the maintenace funds have been spent on. Where has the money gone? Who determines the priorities for repairs? It's bad enough that students only have access to a "classroom set" of textbooks and don't have books to take home, but now they are breathing mold spores along with their oxygen. What are the long-term health effects of this? Do I see a class-action lawsuit in the future?

ranhop23

May 12, 2009 - 10:38 pm EDT

This insane issue continues to plague the Guilford County school system. As a parent of a child at Oak Ridge Elementary and a tax payer of Guilford County, I am beyond annoyed now with the elected officials and hired staff in charge of our school system. It is quite obvious that no one involved has any clue as to how to remedy this situation. For four years, those in charge have continued to chase this mold growth and have yet to solve the PROBLEM. It does not matter what flooring you change, what expensive HVAC system you install or even what type of anti-microbial cleaner you use daily. Until you STOP the water infiltration into the building from apparently multiple sources, this is going to continue. The most insane thing about this situation other than the incompetent attempt to remedy it is that the school system has spent over $600,000 to date and the problem still exists. WHY are we paying to fix problems in a brand new school? WHERE is the General Contractor who built the school and WHY are they not paying for the errors? If the school system is not going after them to fix these issues or at least pay to have them fixed, it leads me to wonder what the relationship of that General Contractor is to someone in the school system or County. Vague speculation I know, but, makes one wonder all the while.
The school system would benefit from hiring someone with actual construction experience to handle the maintenance of our new and older buildings. It does not need $8 million to do the job.It just needs competence and experiance and someone with the ability to hire the right contractors to do the job right in the first place. And, if mistakes are made, hold those entities accountable for fixing them at their own expense, not the taxpayer.
Government has no place in construction management, especially when it affects the health of our children or the wallets of our citizens. Hire professionlas to do the job right the first time.

oscardad44

May 13, 2009 - 12:01 am EDT

Brian: This is very interesting I hope you will consider a future story on how many times GCS parents have asked for Air Quality test in GCS schools.

What does the school system do regarding so many of there schools with mold?

EC and ALL parents are concerned regarding this topic however as always it is interesting how issues that are important to parents have to go to the media before the district pays any attention.

Again get the mold test for all GCS schools except the newer ones!

GCSparent

May 13, 2009 - 5:47 am EDT

Not just how many times a parent asked for testing but how often are all schools tested in generak?
What about mobiles? I see and hear terrible things about old mobiles and mold.

midwestgrl

May 19, 2009 - 11:37 pm EDT

As another Oak Ridge parent with a child who is having respiratory issues - this is beyond frustrating and I am in complete agreement with the previous comments. I'm not sure I can take another news article where Guildford County "thinks" they have fixed the problem (if it even makes the news). It appears to be more about money & politics then the kids and the teachers. Status quo for GCS. As note to oscardad44, most of Oak Ridge is 4 years new...it's not just older schools you have to worry about.

shamel

May 13, 2009 - 8:55 am EDT

School officials and parents may want to check out the remarkable research on toxic mold removal done by environmental expert Dr Ed Close. Simply diffusing a therapeutic-grade oil regularly in these school buildings would likely result in an environment very hostile to mold. Moreover, numerous studies have shown breathing natural oils improves classroom performance.
http://www.secretofthieves.com/mold.cfm/79544

It seems like this would make traditional remediation projects easier and more effective, as well as creating a healthier environment for the students to learn.

In one instance, 10,667 stachybotrys mold spores were identified in a per cubic meter area. After diffusing Thieves essential oil for forty-eight hours, Dr Close retested. Only thirteen stachybotrys remained. Similarly, 75,000 stachybotrys mold spores were identified in a sample of sheetrock. After seventy-two hours of diffusing, no stachybotrys mold spores remained. (Stachybotrys has a reputation for being the most toxic mold.)

ccook

May 21, 2009 - 8:20 am EDT

My little brother attended OR Elementary in the very early 1990's. He was soon diagnosed a few years later with Breathers Air Disease - a diagnosis often given from what I understand when no other explanation exists for problems with breathing. Today he no longer has the condition.

Another alarming situation that has not gotten enough coverage is the fact that several male students attending the school have later come down with testicular cancer. A number of males kids, one I know personally, experienced testicular cancer in their early 20's to 30's. I don't know the exact number this has affected, but there must be an explanation why (although it may not be related to the mold).

One issue some folks are not aware of in Oak Ridge is that the water table near the school was contaminated with gasoline from a leaking tank at the old gas station across the street some years ago. The water was tested, and some tracts of the area are high enough in contamination that the water is not drinkable.