List Of Moldy Schools Grows

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List Of Moldy Schools Grows

Marshall, Stoughton Dealing With Mold Now

September 13, 2002

STOUGHTON, Wis. -- It's attacking school classrooms and budgets all around

south central Wisconsin.

Watch Eggert's report

Mold has become a big headache for a number of school districts.

Marshall is the latest. Officials found mold in parts of its middle school.

Other area districts to deal with the air-quality issue include DeForest,

Deerfield, Sun Prairie, Monona Grove, Stoughton, Lodi, Milton, and, of

course, Madison.

As mold crops up in more schools, district officials find themselves wading

through complicated, unchartered territory.

News 3's Eggert was in Stoughton Thursday to see how the school is

coping.

At Stoughton high school, a wrestling gym is now a science classroom.

Without lab facilities, experiments are more creative. Orange cones and cups

test students on the metric system.

" I set up a miniature golf course in the classroom and out in the hallway

for them to practice estimating, and then practice putting too, for fun, "

said physics teacher Blum.

Blum's real classroom is behind layers of plastic and duct tape.

Mold has closed eight classrooms in the six-year old science and agriculture

wing, and two other rooms elsewhere.

Crews are now taking out the mold found mostly behind baseboards and around

emergency showers in science rooms. Officials say they didn't have proper

drains.

Some staff and students will be stuck in places like the auditorium, for

about a month.

That's because in their classrooms, the bottom 2 feet of all walls have to

be replaced with material that doesn't absorb water.

School officials have no choice when it comes to mold.

" We've discovered that there are no guidelines, " said Superintendent Myron

Palomba. " There are no state guidelines as to what an acceptable level or

unacceptable level is. We've been working with some guidelines that the

state of Minnesota has put out. "

That state says any visible school mold is a potential health hazard.