Slow fixes at Palm Beach schools keep mold and mildew lingering

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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/3602641.htm

Fri, Jul. 05, 2002

Slow fixes at Palm Beach schools keep mold and mildew lingering

By MARY ELLEN FLANNERY

Palm Beach Post

WEST PALM BEACH - Even while students and teachers complain of mildew and

mold, the Palm Beach County School District is lagging in its efforts to

repair faulty air-conditioning systems.

School board members originally expected the district to replace two major

air-conditioning systems a year, school board member ette Burdick said.

But last year, only H.L. Elementary's was done.

This year, one more is underway. And next year, another one will be done,

while two more will be delayed an additional year for financial reasons.

The money to pay for the replacements at Christa McAuliffe Middle School in

Boynton Beach and Calusa Elementary in Delray Beach isn't available until

the 2003-04 fiscal year, according to information provided to the board.

Meanwhile, the district's environmental inspectors were called to Christa

McAuliffe six times during the past school year to look at eight classrooms,

a portable and an office, according to district records.

Students and teachers had complained that classroom conditions aggravated

their allergies or asthma. Even though inspectors detected musty odors, they

did not find serious problems such as mold.

Inspectors visited Calusa once. In November, an art teacher reported mold

growing on her classroom walls, and inspectors found the room's humidity

reached 79 percent at night. It should be less than 60 percent. But

inspectors also found that the teacher kept the room too cold, which allowed

condensation to collect, Skerlec said.

''We have placed auditoriums and stadiums at a higher priority than air

quality -- that's a problem,'' Burdick said, referring to the district's

practice of paying for those facilities at every new high school. ``Our

budgets should put health and safety at the top.''

But the classroom systems ''definitely are a priority,'' it's just a timing

issue, said Joe , the district's facilities director.

''I think Mrs. Burdick would like us to start construction at the same time

that the designs are done. That's just not possible,'' he said.

Air quality in Palm Beach County classrooms has been an issue for years,

particularly in the nearly two dozen schools designed by W.R. Frizzell of

Hobe Sound.

In 1996, the district sued Frizzell, claiming its poorly designed

air-conditioning system was causing respiratory illnesses. But Frizzell

filed for bankruptcy and the district settled for just $450,000.

The Frizzell units ''just weren't meant for a hot, humid climate like South

Florida,'' said Skerlec, the district's environmental control officer.

In the units' most striking failure, two teachers at Banyan Creek Elementary

were hospitalized in 1999 with a form of Legionnaire's disease after mold

grew on their classroom walls.