Outraged parents in a San Diego County school district are demanding answers after learning mold was discovered in their children’s classrooms days after the school year began.
The Poway Unified School District sent an email to parents on August 22 informing them that the principal at Black Mountain Middle School had reported mold found in classrooms ahead of the school year, according to KGTV. The email arrived ten days after students had already returned from summer break. Varying levels of mold spores were found in more than a dozen classrooms, ranging from low to high.
The email said rooms were cleaned on August 10 but that a “musty odor persisted in some areas.” Some teachers were wearing N95 masks after mold was found in the carpets, desks and other locations in the school, KGTV reported. The tests found that eight classrooms had low levels of mold spores, two with moderate, and four with high levels, noting the results weren’t final and a complete report would soon be available.
Parents who contacted KGTV said this isn’t the first time mold was found at the school and said they want answers why they weren’t told about the current problem before they sent their kids back to school. Looking at the middle school website, weekly updates from the principal to parents in August do not mention one word about the discovery of mold.
“Cleaning and remediation were completed over the weekend, including carpet cleaning, antimicrobial wiping of surfaces, cleaning air registers, and replacing HVAC filters,” District spokesman Josué Reyna told KGTV.
The district said over the weekend the classrooms were all cleaned again and follow-up testing was to be completed. The district is currently looking into the carpet cleaning procedure before the school year was set to start as the possible cause of the problem.
Students at an elementary school in the same district recently had the start of their school year delayed, with students sent to a different campus to deal with mold issues. In a letter from the principal of Del Sur Elementary, parents were told the start of the year would be delayed by one week over “moisture-related concerns” in some of the classrooms found earlier in the month, Fox 5 reported. Classes started on Aug. 24 and students are anticipated to return to their home campus by September 21.