More mold, flooding double ton's cleanup costs

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Tuesday, July 2, 2002

More mold, flooding double ton's cleanup costs

By JESSICA RAYNOR

jraynor@...

PERRYTON - The finding of more toxic mold at ton High School and

flooding problems at the school have doubled the expected mold cleanup cost,

said Robin Adkins, ton superintendent.

The total bill will come to at least $125,000, after school officials

approved about $50,000 more in costs last week to remediate newly affected

areas in the Mize Vocational Center and clean up water damage after a large

rainfall in mid-June, Adkins said.

" It's something that has to be done, " Adkins said. " It's frustrating in the

sense of the expense to the district. "

He said previously much of that cost will be incurred by the school's

insurance company.

Adkins said Abatement Remediation Specialists of Marble Falls were expected

to complete all the remediation Monday, which included ripping out all

drywall in the affected classrooms, Adkins said.

Environmental Group engineers will then go in and test the

classrooms to be assured the mold is not present, he said.

After the rainfall the week of June 17, engineers inspecting affected rooms

in the Mize Vocational Center found more spores of stachybotrous chartarum

in the walls, Adkins said.

The rainfall also caused flooding in the hallway, seeping into classrooms'

carpet, Adkins said. Those rooms were remediated and their carpets were

removed, he said.

School officials hope to have the cleanup completed by July 10, when Parsley

Sheet Metal and Roofing will put a new roof over the existing roof of Mize

Vocational Center. That is expected to cost $50,000, something already

budgeted by the school before the recent problems, Adkins said.

That project is expected to take up to 10 days, he said.

A poor drainage system on the roof has been blamed for the school's

continuing mold problems, which started in March, when testing revealed the

mold's presence.

After a week of remediation at a cost of about $14,000, the school got the

all-clear to let students back into the affected classrooms, which included

journalism and computer classrooms.

Shortly after that all-clear, engineers tested " something suspicious " on the

walls of some classrooms down the hall, which later tested positive for

black mold. Adkins said at the time the growth came from inside the space

between the interior and exterior walls.

A month later, a districtwide indoor air quality test uncovered a couple of

suspicious spots in the classrooms supposedly cleared of the mold.

The black mold's presence could be connected to a variety of health

concerns, including nosebleeds, dizziness, mental confusion and hair loss,

depending on how much mold is present, Dr. Straus, a microbiologist at

Texas Tech Health Science Center in Lubbock, said in previous reports.

Adkins said he hoped to get students back into renovated classrooms, with

new walls and tiled floors, by the start of the school year.

" That would be the ideal, " he said. " It will be tough to get it all done on

time. "