School Officials Tour Moldy School POTOMAC, Md

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School Officials Tour Moldy School

Overcrowding A Bigger Problem After School Closes Portable Classrooms

POSTED: 6:59 pm EST March 22, 2006

UPDATED: 8:55 pm EST March 22, 2006

http://www.nbc4.com/news/8193801/detail.html

POTOMAC, Md. -- Montgomery County school officials toured a local

elementary school Wednesday after the discovery of mold in two

portable classrooms.

Some parents said their children got sick because of the mold, and

there's concern other portable classrooms may have the same problem.

The parents noticed sick children were coming from the same portable

classrooms at Bells Mill Elementary School.

High concentrations of mold led to the permanent closing of the

portable classrooms in late February.

" The county is not telling us or admitting that the reason they are

sick is because of the portables, " said concerned parent Cari

Paven. " And yet, when the children are taken out of the portables --

and the teachers -- and put in the building -- which, by the way, is

completely overcrowded, now -- they get better. "

School board members who toured the school Wednesday learned that

the already overcrowded school is even more crowded now that music

class is held in a utility room, a storage room is used as a

classroom and specialized instruction takes place in hallways.

Montgomery County has more than 700 portable classrooms -- 140 are

11 years old -- and there is concern that there may be more

undiscovered breading places for mold and health problems.