Broward School District Cleanup of Mold, Mildew to be Probed by State Attorney

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Wednesday, January 30, 2002

Schools' cleanup to be probed

State case to deal with mold, mildew

BY STEVE HARRISON

sharrison@...

The Broward school district's much-criticized efforts to rid schools of mold

and mildew have caught the attention of the Broward State Attorney's Office,

which plans to ask a grand jury to look at the district's cleanup efforts.

Assistant State Attorney Countryman said the investigation is a

follow-up to a 1997 Broward grand jury report that criticized the district's

construction efforts in the early 1990s as sloppy and wasteful. The new

investigation could come before a grand jury as early as this spring, but

more likely in the fall.

``We've asked to talk to a number of people . . . who are chief custodial

workers,'' said Countryman, who heads a special-projects team in the public

corruption unit. ``We're looking at the schools built in the late 1980s and

the early 1990s.''

Countryman said he has been monitoring the district's construction efforts

for the past 18 months, but began focusing on its mold and mildew

eradication efforts after an internal school district audit released in

December criticized the cleanup.

Since the mid-1990s, parents at several Broward schools have complained

their children get headaches and allergic reactions because of poor air

quality. In October, parents of Virginia Shuman Young Elementary students

packed a School Board meeting, pleading for an immediate cleanup of the Fort

Lauderdale school. Shuman Young's mold and mildew problems are among the

county's most infamous.

Countryman attended a Jan. 15 School Board meeting in which the audit was

briefly discussed by board members.

``That's when I started to look at things,'' he said.

The State Attorney's Office plans to interview 35 to 40 people, including

custodians who combat mold and mildew at schools, Countryman said.

The case might not bring any indictments, but would still be brought before

a grand jury as an investigation of how public money is being spent.

The aftermath of the first grand jury report stalled school construction in

Broward as the School Board worked to fix problems. The district is now in

the midst of a huge building boom as it tries to catch up with rising

student enrollment; the district plans to open 18 new schools by August

2003.

Countryman said the district's new construction is much better than its

efforts in the early '90s, but his new investigation into mold and mildew

stings. The School Board will discuss Feb. 12 whether and when it should ask

voters for as much as $1.3 billion to meet additional building needs.

Board chairman Bob Parks said he isn't surprised by Countryman's

investigation, and said it could help the district.

``He always said he was going to look back into this,'' Parks said.

``Hopefully, it will establish credibility in the community that we are open

and forthright. And if he finds something wrong, he gives us the ammunition

to correct those problems.''

Since the original grand jury report, the district's building department has

been reorganized, with personnel changes including the addition of Deputy

Superintendent Tom Calhoun, who arrived in the summer of 2000.

One of Calhoun's changes has been to bundle mold and mildew projects with

other maintenance needs, so schools are repaired all at once, rather than

piecemeal.

The critical audit focused on mold and mildew cleanup efforts at eight

Broward schools, including Central Park, Coral Park, Croissant Park and

Virginia Shuman Young elementaries, and City, Plantation, South

Broward and high schools. It said the district's maintenance,

construction and risk-management departments weren't working together.

Other criticisms: Projects were not prioritized and there was no

comprehensive plan; contractors did poor work; consultants were poorly used

and overpaid.