Broward County is Exposing Walls Full of Flaws

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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/3741416.htm

Fri, Jul. 26, 2002

EXPOSING WALLS FULL OF FLAWS

Schools finally begin to fix long-evident mold problems

BY STEVE HARRISON

sharrison@...

Broward School Board member Kraft remembers her daughter coming

home from Riverside Elementary three years ago.

'She said, `Mom, it rained in class today,' '' said Kraft, whose daughter

just graduated from the Coral Springs school.

Riverside has been one of Broward's most notorious mold and mildew schools

since its error-prone construction in 1987. But after years of bureaucratic

delays, school officials are now trying to fix the damage in the school's

cafeteria and classrooms. The cost: roughly $2.5 million.

Where students sat two months ago in the musty-smelling cafeteria, the

interior of some walls has been ripped out, revealing wet insulation and

black mold on the drywall. Some of the drywall has crumbled after years of

being damp.

Riverside is one of five schools designed in the late 1980s by the

architectural firm , Meier, Kenyon and of Fort Lauderdale. The

other four school the firm designed -- Country Isles in Weston, Coral Park

in Coral Springs, Sandpiper in Sunrise and Silver Ridge in Davie -- all have

mold and mildew problems.

Though the district never sought financial help from the firm in repairing

the damages, Kraft said, the schools had numerous design flaws, including

gutters built inside walls. Internal gutters were used for aesthetic

reasons, but their faulty design allowed rainwater to escape and run down

walls.

The schools also had leaky metal roofs and cupolas that allowed water to

seep in.

An obvious sign of water intrusion at Riverside: Plants are growing inside

the school's columns, visible through clear block glass.

Deputy Superintendent and construction chief Tom Calhoun, who arrived in

Broward two years ago, said the architect and builder tried new things ``but

obviously didn't have the skill to pull it off.''

Calhoun hopes much of the classroom repair will be finished by the start of

school Aug. 26. Work on administrative areas will start this fall.

Some of the building flaws were detailed in a 1997 grand jury report that

criticized Broward's construction efforts as being sloppy and wasteful. The

Broward State Attorney's Office is doing a follow-up to that 1997 report

focusing on the district's problems in cleaning mold and mildew. The report

could go to a grand jury in the fall. The grand jury could decide to issue

its own report on misuse of public dollars in connection with the

construction efforts.

''The parents have been pushing and pushing to get this done,'' Kraft said.

``They have been wondering: Will this ever get finished.''

School auditors earlier this year criticized the school district's mold and

mildew eradication efforts as being uncoordinated and hopelessly bogged down

by red tape. The district never sued the architect for the leaks, Kraft

said.

Construction officials hope to have most of Riverside's classrooms and the

cafeteria finished around the start of school; administrative buildings will

be cleaned throughout the school year.

Work also has started on Country Isles Elementary. Contracts for the other

three schools have been awarded, and work could start later this year.

School officials aren't cleaning every Riverside classroom. Calhoun said all

classrooms with visible signs of mold and mildew are being cleaned, and that

ceilings on all classrooms are being removed to look for hidden damage.

Kraft hopes that is enough.

''I want to believe that is true,'' she said. ``I want to believe that will

solve the problem.''