After the clean up at Northfield Community School

Last Updated on Thursday, September 27, 2012 10:38 am Written by Suzanne Marino Wednesday, September 26, 2012 06:20 pm

NORTHFIELD – Monday evening the board of education invited the parents along with the mold specialist and the mold remediation team to the answer questions parents might have about the mold problems that necessitated moving the first day of school from Sept. 6 to Sept. 18.

District Superintendent Janice Fipp said, “Parents and staff; you need to know that every decision that was made during this process was done with the health and welfare of students and staff as the priority.”

The superintendent said the initial finding of mold was Sept. 5, the day before students were due back into the school. It was located in the top of a closet that a teacher saw that could possibly be mold. On that same day more than 180 staff and kindergarten parents and students had been in the school and there was nothing visible to anyone.

Once the possible mold was discovered everything in the building came to a halt until it could be determined if it was in fact mold. Coastal Environmental was called in and Marilee Marinelli, the mold specialist identified the spot as mold and that elevated levels of a common outdoor mold were detected in the surrounding air as well.

Marinelli said the mold was very recent growth and indicated that if the conditions are right, there can be a significant mold growth in 72 hours. “Clearly this was the case. The unusually humid weather and with the building not in constant use the HVAC system was unable to remove all of the moisture from the air,” said Marinelli.

While parents listened to how the problem occurred they had questions about how the district will handle the subsequent hot muggy summers so that the situation does not arise again. Parent Wayne Palaia said, “It is not so much the humidity, it is the dew point. I know in my house when it gets too hot that I adjust the thermostat.” Fipp said that Core Mechanical that has the contract for the HVAC system is working on each unit in the school to check the settings to determine exactly what they have to have in place so that it does not happen again. The superintendent added that the district will be forthcoming with all of the information they learn.

The cost of the mold clean up is still being tallied. The board of education made a number of transfers within the budget at Monday’s meeting to find $360,000 to cover the cost of remediation. There will be a recap on the progress and the costs associated with the clean up at the Oct. 22 board of education meeting.