Mold forces closure of school library

January 20, 2006

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 01/20/06

BY BRIAN LEE

KEYPORT BUREAU

AID=/20060120/NEWS01/601200373/1004

Asbury Park,NJ

HOLMDEL — Mold has resurfaced at Indian Hill Elementary on Holmdel

Road, forcing closure of its library until mid-February.

The Board of Education allocated more than $63,000 in health and

safety emergency funds to fix a roof leak in the library's media

center.

Officials also said they believe converting the library's carpeting

with tile, replacing all chairs and book shelves, and testing all

books for mold would alleviate the problem, interim Superintendent

Mark Franceschini outlined in a statement.

They will also fix the room's air-conditioning system, which may

have caused the problem because it didn't dehumidify properly and

retained moisture, Board of Education member Barbara Garrity said.

The issue surfaced at the grades 4 to 6 school in September 2003,

when authorities delayed the start of the school year by three days

for schoolwide mold. It was triggered the previous summer in the

heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system of the fifth- and

sixth-grade wings.

Back then, the fungus infiltrated the library, classrooms and

computer labs, but officials had up to 60 technicians working to

remedy the problem by cleaning equipment, " scrubbing " the air, and

extracting mold from porous surfaces and flash-drying cleaned

materials.

Wednesday, two parents expressed concern about the recurrence.

" Kids have library time, supposedly on a regular basis, " said Jin

Lee, parent of a sixth-grader. " I don't know what kind of mold it is

there, but if my kids are in the lab, they're exposed to it, right? "

Principal Judith Landis said, " We're being proactive about this " and

declined further comment, referring questions to the

Superintendent's Office.

Indian Hill has about 1,100 students, was built in 1958 and

underwent construction in 1998, according to its Web site.

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