Yahara Elementary School in DeForest Closed for Mold

March 22, 2002

WISC Channel3000.com

Friday March 22 10:39 AM EST

Mold Closes DeForest School Today

Classes have been canceled today for 340 students at Yahara Elementary

School in DeFoest while officials investigate possible mold found in the air

circulation system.

Students had been scheduled to start their spring break tomorrow.

Parents learned Thursday night that Yahara Elementary School will close,

probably for the rest of the school year.

Kids and teachers will be relocated to three other schools because officials

fear there's mold in the school's ductwork, News 3 reported.

DeForest area school officials have been battling small cases of mold at

Yahara Elementary School for 10 years.

" Anytime you're talking about the safety of the children and our staff, we

want to make sure we've done everything we can do to protect them, " Jon

Bales, DeForest superintendent said.

The school district has been conducting air quality tests at the at the

school since January, News 3 reported. This week it stumbled upon another

problem.

" They discovered what they thought could be a growth in there, " Bales said.

" We don't know if it's mold, but whenever you're dealing with the air

filtering systems, it seemed like the safest and most precautious approach

was to just close the building. "

Right now, it doesn't look like kids will be returning to the school until

next fall.

" If we can isolate problems, then we're going to want to remediate those

completely and we want the time to be able to do that, " Bales said.

Tonight parents learned about the problem for the first time Thursday night,

and it stirred up mixed reactions, News 3 reported.

" I think it's ridiculous, I do, I think it's a bunch of hype because of the

Chavez thing, " parent Netzel said.

Some parents said it's better safe than sorry.

" It's better than waiting for the final results come and then saying, 'Oh,

it was bad, and we should have closed the school,' " parent Tammy Lubick

said.

School officials said they'll be working closely with parents to try and

make the relocation of nearly 350 students as painless as possible. and will

have more information as it becomes available.

Recommended Posts