Toxic Mold Postpones School Year

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Hill, IL

Toxic Mold Postpones School Year

Aug 18, 2005, 09:59 AM

http://www.kfvs12.com/Global/story.asp?S=3737521 & nav=8H3xdTgr

Toxic Mold Postpones School Year

By: Arnold Wyrick

Hill, IL - Students, and teachers were supposed to be in

the classrooms at TRICO Elementary on Wednesday, but instead there

were only workers cleaning up toxic mold. So school district leaders

decided to push the start of the school year back another week.

" We didn't want to go on a day to day basis closing the school. We

just thought let's do if for a week, and everybody should be gone.

And all the air samples should be back in a week, and okay, " says

TRICO Superintendent Dennis .

That's what many parents are hoping for too, a clean bill of health

for the school.

" I think it was needed, there's a lot of kids that suffer from

allergies, and mold might be one of them. I know my children don't

have allergies. But for kids that do, I think they need to get rid

of the mold first before they let the kids back into that

environment, " says Young of Ava.

Superintendent says the school board did have the kids health

in mind in deciding to postpone the start of the school year.

" Believe it or not there's a lot of disappointment with the kids who

aren't going to get to start school on time. But when it comes to

the safety of the kids and their health, it was an easy decision to

make, " said.

Some students Heartland News talked with didn't seem to mind getting

another week off from school.

" Well I'm looking forward to another week of fishing. And I think

it's pretty good, because I don't have to go for another week, " says

of Ava.

" Feels pretty good to have one more week off, but I'm probably going

to have to work more. I've got more lawns to mow, " says Clint Young

of Ava.

If everything stays on schedule with the clean up of the toxic mold,

students should be back in the classroom by August 24th. Then it's

going to be a wait and see for the district if the mold was

completely removed.

" We're just going to have to monitor it very closely, and hope that

the staff will let us know if they see anything. So we can get on

top of it before it gets out of control, " Superintendent said.

The school district is also going to have to figure out how to pay

for the clean up cost. A figure that has soared much higher then the

original estimate of $53,000.00 to $75,000.00 dollars.

" We're going to try to pay for that out of our Emergency Life Safety

Fund, and we might have to use some of our Building Maintenance

Fund. We aren't looking at having to tap into our Education Fund for

the clean up, " said.

But the school district will still have to figure out how to make up

this extra week off, once the school year begins.