ROOSEVELT: Moldy carpets delay first day of school

By Amy Batista, Special Writer
   ROOSEVELT — The school district’s 95 students received an unexpected extension of their summer vacation last week when a mold problem inside the building delayed the opening of school until Monday.
   Teachers personally called the parents of their students to let them know the first day of school had been pushed back from Sept. 6 to Sept. 10.
   ”Each family gets a phone call, the old-fashion way,” said Roosevelt Board of Education President Natalie Warner on Friday. “It’s the nice thing about having a small school district that you can reach out and give that personal touch.”
   Class sizes in this K-6 district average about 12 students.
   The mold was first discovered the week after new interim Principal Stephanie Bilenker arrived Aug. 15.
   ”It was after they cleaned the carpets for the school year, and then after that we had a crazy rain, I think it was a Wednesday night, and by Thursday night (there was) mold on the carpets,” Ms. Warner said.
   ”It was one of those perfect scenarios where the heat and the humidity from the rain went together and grew mold,” she said.
   Ms. Warner said it was the first time the 75-year-old school had experienced mold to this extent and that the carpets had been “the main source.”
   ”There were a couple of isolated places in the spring and the insurance company came out and advised us and we cleaned it then, but this is the first time this was system-wide problem,” Ms. Warner said.
   The Roosevelt Board of Education on Aug. 23 approved a contract with mold-remediation experts Insurance Restoration Inc., and the cleanup began the next day.
   ”The original contract was not to exceed $100,000 and the contract included them cleaning until all the air samples passed,” Ms. Warner said.
   After the cleanup was completed and passing marks on air-quality tests were received, the district began preparing for the scheduled Sept. 6 opening. However, when school personnel went into the school building to begin setting up classrooms, they found mold had begun resurfacing “to a much smaller degree,” Ms. Warner said.
   The contractor then did some more cleaning and the last air quality sample passed on Friday (Sept. 7) clearing the way for Monday’s opening.
   The school’s age and uniqueness creates challenges, she said.
   ”It’s a struggle,” Ms. Warner said. “We have a mural that’s part of a historic site,” she said, referring to the mural painted by the famous artist Ben Shahn. “It’s an important building to the whole town,” Ms. Warner said.