Pod Mold Found More Extensive

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Pod Mold Found More Extensive

Westport-news, WESTPORT, CT*

By Luongo

08/09/2007

http://www.westport-news.com/local/ci_6581776

Floor-to-ceiling mold has been growing between the inner and outer

walls of the permanent portable, or pod, which was scheduled for

demolition and removal today at the King's Highway Elementary School

(KHS) in Westport.

The discovery last week of that amount of mold came as a surprise to

Gil Cormier, an environmental consultant engaged by the school

system with the public support of First Selectman Gordon loff.

That support was given in response to strong advocacy by the KHS

Parent Clean Air Committee that Cormier be hired as an independent

expert to conduct an environmental assessment of the school before

it reopened for the new school year later this month.

At the first meeting last Thursday of the newly formed KHS

Maintenance Committee, which was convened and appointed by loff,

Cormier said that prior to his inspection, the serious mold

contamination found in the testing of the pod last fall was thought

to have been restricted to an area behind the walls closer to floor

level.

The committee is holding a work session tomorrow at 5 p.m. in Room

307 at Westport Town Hall, and its technical subcommittee had a work

session scheduled for this morning.

In response to the discovery, Cormier received approval from the

school business office for the hiring of an abatement company to

encapsulate both the inner and outer walls of the pod before

demolition and removal.

Parent members of the maintenance committee claimed at the meeting

that this additional step indicated that school officials did not

have an adequate safety plan in place for the work on the pod, and

they expressed dismay that their children had been at so much

potential risk for so long in the past school year.

But the chairman of the maintenance committee, Gavin , in an

e-mail response to an inquiry from this newspaper, said earlier this

week that his committee's initiatives have sped up the process for

implementing safeguards, which, he said the school administration

has accepted " enthusiastically " with " cooperation to the maximum. "

Superintendent of Schools Elliott Landon, in a letter two weeks ago,

assured KHS parents that they had a " healthy school " in part because

his administration had closed off the pod before the start of the

past school year and would now remove the pod " under the supervision

of qualified and certified contractors. "

" We will be working closely with the Westport Weston Health District

to ensure that all work meets the highest health and safety

standards, " Landon said in the letter.

The closing of the pod, which Landon described as a sealing-off from

access by students and teachers, was in response, he said, to the

testing that had discovered fungi in the facility.

Landon did not give the date in the letter of that testing, but the

KHS Clean Air Committee has made copies available of the results of

a study done at the school on Sept. 15, 2006.

That report says that airborne and surface samplings of the pod had

detected mold spores " capable of producing microtoxins that may

cause adverse health effects in some individuals. "

Parents have said that the report was not released to them or the

wider public during the past school year and that they were kept in

the dark about its contents for the entire year.

The Westport News on Tuesday received a copy of the school

facilities survey, the EDO50 report, that the school system is

required to file each year with the state Education Department.

The survey consists of a single-sheet checklist that rates building

facilities on a scale from poor to excellent and air-quality

mechanical systems as either having no problems or having problems

that are scheduled for correction.

The pod at KHS was not identifiable from the checklist and there

appeared to be no way of reporting mold contamination. No room at

the school received a poor rating from the school facilities

director, who completed the survey.

Air-quality mechanicals were found to be in good shape, except for

needed cleaning of heating, ventilation and air conditioning units

and improving of air-intakes. Carpeting, according to the survey,

would be cleaned or removed.

Cormier said at the meeting that the closing of the pod was done

with a sheetrock cover of the doorway to the school proper, which,

he said, was not air-tight. He said that mold pollution could have

migrated through the sheetrock into the school, but could not say

this definitively.

He described his task as a " puzzle of a thousand pieces " and said

that he still had a number of spots to check out around the school

before he reported on its environmental condition, including above

ceiling tiles and pipes, especially at entrances, through which

humid air comes into the school.

Asked by committee member Jay Keenan, who served on the Staples High

School Building Committee, whether any " drastic " mold conditions had

been found so far in the school proper, Cormier said that he had not

yet found such conditions.

Cormier did express concern about the school's ventilation and air-

exchange system, saying that it appeared to be sucking hot, humid

air into the school and in that way possibly promoting the growth of

mold.

The ventilation system could also be contributing to the high level

of carbon dioxide that has been discovered in air testing at the

school, a problem which was noted by state health officials who

recently visited the school.

For several years, five-year capital spending forecasts in school

budgets have included a line item for the upgrading of ventilation

at KHS, and the most recent projection calls for the work to be done

in the 2010-11 school year at an estimated cost of $515,000.

First Selectman Gordon loff has been discussing the possibility

of stepping up the schedule for the completion of the ventilation

upgrade at the school.

In addition to the technical subcommittee, announced plans

to create four others to deal with health issues at KHS, obtain

further input from parents, plan for possible remediation expenses

and consult with teachers.