Portage Area Elementary School building found safe after mold discovery

Mild mold spores discovered in elementary school in early July

PORTAGE -- Although mild mold spores were found in the Portage Area Elementary School in early July, the building is safe for occupancy, and teachers are excited to welcome their students back to school in a couple weeks, Acting Superintendent Krystal Smith said.

During Wednesday's school board meeting, Smith said the district hired an outside company, Allegheny Mountain Research, to come in and test the affected areas, which were located in the lower level of the building, with the front of the building having a higher spore concentration than the backside.

The district got those results immediately and hired Firewater Response to perform mitigation work during the last two weeks of July, Smith said, noting it was caught quickly enough that officials didn't have to throw anything out.

Firewater Response employees mitigated everything and retested the school on Aug. 3, Smith said, adding the results dropped drastically.

"Some of the rooms dropped from the thousands to double digits and everything is below where it needs to be," Smith said. "All of the rooms are cleaned and ready to go."

District officials placed dehumidifiers throughout the building and air purifiers in certain classrooms to help the situation, she said. Next year, the district will change its scrubbing protocol, which she said will help ensure the problem does not occur again.

The humidity and temperature difference in the summer caused some condensation on pipes in the lower level of the building, she said.

Among the routine items the board voted on at the meeting was a resolution to apply for a state public safety facility grant, which would be used for needed high school exterior safety renovations and updates, Smith said.

The work would include improving the parking lots, sidewalks, curbs and installing new doors and lighting, she said.

As a 25% match, Portage Area would need to put up a little under $300,000 for the work, if the district is granted the $865,631 it requested from the state.

During public comment, second grade teacher Rebecca Single addressed a concern she has heading into the new school year.

According to Single, there are three second grade teachers in the district. While the three will teach reading and math to the 42 incoming second graders in the morning, one of the teachers will be pulled to work with an English as a Second Language student while her students are condensed into the other two teachers' classes.

Single said this decision will affect all of the incoming students and questioned whether the board could emergency certify another teacher to fill the void.

Single claimed teachers within the district have "no transparency" from the administration and feel they're being misled about what's going on.

"I asked myself, is this retaliation? Is this retribution for the (staff) surveys? When I think about it, that's how I feel," Single said. "Our academics are going to take a huge hit, and it's going to affect every second grader."

The board did not publicly address Single's comments during the meeting. After the meeting, Smith said the only ESL student in the district happens to be in second grade, and the decision to pair the teacher with the student makes sense, given the grade's small enrollment.

There will be about 13 or 14 students in a class during the morning session, and in the afternoon when the third teacher is unavailable, there will be about 21 students in each of the two classes.

The current fourth grade has 24 students in a class, and the ratio is fair when compared with other school districts, Smith said.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.