Two local school districts still dealing with mold concerns
Two Westmoreland County school districts continue to hope their students can return to school soon following a need to delay the start of school due to mold concerns.
The mold issue has delayed the start of the school year for just those in the high school at Southmoreland School District, and officials with Mount Pleasant Area School District have decided to delay the start of school for an entire week for all students.
Southmoreland Superintendent Vincent Mascia said they are working to clean up mold and mildew found in a band room at the high school so that high school students can join the rest of the district’s students, who have been attending since Monday.
“Mildew and mold was found in a band closet and we called in a company who has contained the area and as of Wednesday afternoon continued with cleanup.
“They tell me the process is moving smoothly, and I’m hopeful that we might be able to get the students to school soon,” Mascia said. “We took random samples throughout the building just to be safe, so we’re just waiting on the results of an air quality report.”
This report comes just two weeks after directors agreed to reduce and eliminate hours on the custodial staff.
A resolution passed on Aug. 16 to reduce a 5.5-hour custodial staff position at the former Ruffsdale Elementary School down to a 4.5-hour position, to eliminate one 3.5-hour position at the Southmoreland Middle School and to eliminate one 3.5-hour position and one 8-hour position at the high school and furlough the appropriate employees.
The effective date of the furloughs were scheduled for noon on Aug. 25.
Because the students in the rest of the buildings within Southmoreland School District have reported to school since Monday, Mascia said they are applying for an emergency waiver from the state to alleviate the need for the high school students to meet the 180-day requirement.
Mount Pleasant Superintendent Dr. Timothy Gabauer said water intrusion issues resulting from the intense storm season have the district experiencing “slightly elevated microbial counts in a couple of our classrooms compared to the outside environment.
“There has been minimal evidence of mold growth, none of which was of major concern to the professionals, but rather than mitigate any issues one at a time while school is in session, we saw this as an opportunity to pull as many resources as possible to thoroughly check the building and ensure we are appropriately addressing anything and everything,” he said.
Gabauer added that the district has both outside specialists as well as inside specialists on site.
“The interior specialists plan on completing their work by Wednesday or Thursday of this week with the outside specialists shortly thereafter,” he said. “We continue to get nothing but positive reports about their progress and are excited about greeting our staff and students on Tuesday of next week to begin the 2018-19 school year.”