CCISD board may sue over mold at , other schools

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CCISD board may sue over mold at , other schools

Trustees hire law firms to study prospects for legal fight

By Tim Eaton Caller-Times

Corpus Christi school officials on Wednesday voted to hire lawyers to look

into suing the parties involved in the construction of the Elementary

School, which may be contaminated with mold.

The Corpus Christi Independent School District board of trustees voted 6-1

to hire the law firms of Constant & Vela and Huseman & Pletcher to weigh the

possibilities of suing based on concerns about mold on the campus of the

school built in 1992. Only Trustee Harry dissented and said the

suit should wait until after board elections, when the makeup of the board,

and the opinions of board members, may change on the issue.

After the vote, district administrators and the lawyers made minor changes

to the contract, CCISD Superintendent Jesus H. Chavez said. The changes will

require another board vote, but he said the board will likely approve the

changes.

" We have hired these attorneys to look at the possibility to possibly file a

suit against people who would be responsible for mold problems at a school, "

Chavez said after a closed-door meeting with board members.

Architect Walter Wisznia of Wisznia & Associates, whose firm designed

Elementary, said he did not know anything about the issue. And CCISD

officials could not recall the school's builder.

Pruett III, of the firm Constant and Vela, and Tony Pletcher, of the

firm Huseman & Pletcher, will be the lead attorneys representing the

district. Neither lawyer was available to comment on the case.

But Chavez said both 's and Pletcher's firms have experience in similar

cases in other districts, including San Benito Consolidated ISD, Brownsville

ISD, Edinburg ISD, and Pharr-San -Alamo ISD.

Pharr-San -Alamo ISD officials settled a mold case last June for more

than $20 million, a PSJA official said. The suit centered on a 2,000-student

high school in Alamo, much larger than CCISD's 550-student

Elementary.

" We are looking into being proactive to seek damages, " Chavez said, but he

did not give a dollar amount. He added that a suit is not necessarily

imminent.

The attorneys will take 40 percent of any possible award to the district,

and another 5 percent, if the case is appealed, Chavez said. But he added

that the lawyers would not get paid if no damages are awarded.

Chavez said that mold was found at Elementary a couple of weeks ago,

but the school is now safe for students. He also said that district staff

told parents about the problems and the remedy.

Mold was also found in CCISD' Meadowbrook Elementary School in September and

a small amount found in Haas Middle School last month.

Other schools may have mold problems, but Polly Welch of Envirotest, the

company hired to test the facilities, cited a confidentiality agreement and

refused to comment.

The two types of molds that were found at Meadowbrook were stachybotrys,

which is considered toxic and can cause serious health problems with

prolonged exposure, and chaetomium, a more common mold.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the chaetomium

mold is commonly found in buildings, but there is no accurate information

about how often stachybotrys chartarum is found.

Contact Tim Eaton at 886-3794 or eatont@...

February 28, 2002

Copyright 2002, Caller.com. .