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January 13, 2010

State: Take steps to keep mold away

By Stacie N. Galang

PEABODY — Though state public health workers did not find a mold problem at Carroll School during their fall inspection, they recommended the School Department take 19 steps to ensure the fungus does not return.

The 61-page indoor air quality report, received by the city late last month, was the result of a Sept. 29 visit by a team from the Public Health Department's Bureau of Environmental Health. The state had been called to the school after mold was discovered in the school's kindergarten wing.

The School Department has already begun to address the recommendations, according to a memo from School Business Manager David Keniston discussed at last night's School Committee meeting.

State workers said efforts by school custodial staff to remove the mold and clean the area appeared to be successful. The only mold found was a small section near an aquarium, the report said.

"The mold growth in the kindergarten is likely the result of an unusual weather pattern of five consecutive days of outdoor relative humidity in excess of 70 percent, which presented the ideal conditions for moisture accumulation in areas that are prone to condensation," the report concluded.

A combination of factors probably contributed to the higher humidity levels, including the wet August weather, the location of the below-ground-level kindergarten wing, inadequate use of vents in the kindergarten bathroom in the summer, the slope of the ground outside the wing and the presence of plants, the report said.

Last night, committee members asked about both the report and the School Department's response.

Superintendent C. Milton Burnett, responding to committee member Beverley Dunne, said the district planned to purchase five dehumidifiers for the classrooms in the affected wing.

Keniston said he would be looking into possible leaks on the roof, which could be the source for water spots on ceiling panels inside the building.

"We'll attack it in season," he said.

Dunne also asked that the materials on mold and air quality, referred to in the report, be handed out at the district's other schools.

"I would like to see this implemented for all our schools," she said.

Because all the plants in the kindergarten wing had been removed, fellow member Brandi Carpenter wondered if students would lose out on educational opportunities.

Keniston said that until he and other workers were certain where the humidity came from and how it might have produced mold, items like plants and their drip pans would be banished. But the ban wouldn't be permanent.

"We don't want to be Draconian about it," he said.

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