Mold-free, Woodland School gets clean start

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From the Chicago Tribune

Mold-free, Woodland School gets clean start

Mold worries are in the past

By Tom McCann

Tribune staff reporter

January 8, 2002

With workers still pouring hot tar on the roof of Woodland Elementary

School, hundreds of kids bounded into the building Monday morning for their

first day of class there, five months after concerns about mold delayed its

opening and prompted almost $750,000 in repairs.

Parents dropping off children in the packed school gym said they hardly

recognized the place, to their great relief.

Since their last visit, the walls of the Carpentersville school have been

painted, the droopy ceilings repaired and the soggy, foul-smelling carpeting

ripped up and replaced with gleaming white tiles.

" It's lovely to see it looking so bright and so clean. Before, it was not a

place I wanted to send my daughter, " said Diane Reich, whose daughter Grace,

9, is in 3rd grade. " It was in a total shambles. The roof was leaking, the

ceiling tiles were brown and falling, the rooms were dirty and smelly. Now

it's like a whole different school. "

Completing the repairs at Woodland frees up Barrington School District 220

to focus again on addressing its financial woes. The district is expected to

end the fiscal year with a $619,000 deficit, and the school board worked

late into the night Monday debating whether they should ask for a tax

increase on the March ballot or wait until November.

Additional life-safety bond money from the state was used for the repairs,

so no other repair projects were affected.

The 350 pupils at Woodland actually are enrolled in Countryside Elementary

School in Barrington Hills but were supposed to use Woodland for the entire

school year until their new building is completed in August.

However, when parents toured the 50-year-old facility over the summer, they

discovered damp and unsanitary conditions and lobbied the school district to

get it tested for mold.

Slightly elevated levels of mold were detected, so the building was closed

while the district put on a new roof and made repairs. On Monday, parents

and teachers said they were satisfied with the result, especially after

environmental regulators gave the building a clean bill of health.

While the work was being done, the 1st through 5th graders got to spend the

fall at Barrington High School with the big kids. Despite not having lockers

and needing escorts to the bathroom, many of them wanted to stay.

The kids said they loved the athletic facilities and the science labs. And

the teenagers tried their best to be mentors, even bombarding parents with

offers to baby-sit.

" I'd love to be in high school all year. It had a really big gym, " 1st

grader Penrod, 7, said. " I guess high school spoiled me. "

Woodland Principal Judy Docekal said she was glad to have all of her pupils

in one place, where they could begin to forge a sense of community again.

" It was really hard to come together as one when everybody is separated in

different buildings and wings, " she said. " I'm glad we're back under one

roof and this ordeal is finally behind us. "

Most parents shared that sentiment Monday but said the repairs were

desperately needed.

" I'm a parent of an asthmatic child here, so I know his health would have

been affected if they did nothing, " said Ward of Barrington Hills,

whose son Kris is in 3rd grade. " Now I won't have to worry when I leave him

here. "

Others continued to express concern about the building. While children

attended class Monday, a vat of hot tar stood outside near the 1st-grade

classrooms. School district officials said the contractors were adding a

final coat to the roof and should be finished in a couple of days. But

several mothers were worried about the fumes.

" It's beautiful except for the tar smell. I was working here last week and

it gave me a headache, " said Michelson, who has a 5th grader and a 1st

grader there. " If it gets any worse, I'm pulling them out. "

Woodland, which has not been fully occupied since 1999, also will have 100

pupils age 3 to 5 in an early-education program. Those children are

returning Tuesday.

Now that they have a refurbished building, district officials are thinking

of ways to use it after the Countryside pupils leave.

Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune