Jefferson Forest High School Mold problem may be linked to the roof (Leaking for 25 years)

[Guest guest]

http://www.newsadvance.com/MGBOSKC7EMC.html

May 5, 2001 - 11:05 PM

Mold problem may be linked to the roof

By Marcia Apperson

The News & Advance

FOREST - Moeller started teaching at the Jefferson Forest High School

in September 1976, four years after the school was built.

One of the first things the earth science and astronomy teacher noticed when

he came to work was the school was having water problems.

" At that time, the roof was leaking, " Moeller said. " My understanding is the

roof was faulty from the beginning. "

Jefferson Forest High School was closed April 30 because of tests performed

earlier that month in response to a complaint filed with OSHA. IMEC

Engineers found that three classrooms had elevated levels of Stachybotrys

mold; one had an elevated level of penicillium and one room had visible mold

on the drywall.

Jefferson Forest has been plagued by leaks, flooding and water damage for

decades and just about everyone involved points to the roof when a culprit

is sought to explain the source of the moisture and mold problems.

" We've had our share of roofing problems on that building, " said Dennis

Overstreet, supervisor of maintenance for the schools.

The school's roof has been replaced three times since it was constructed.

J.E. Jamerson & Sons of Appomattox built the school, which opened for

students in kindergarten through 12th grades in 1972.

" That's a solid building structurally and it would last a long time, " said

Jamerson, who runs the company. " ... It's not going to fall down or

anything. "

The Bedford County School Board paid $4.5 million for the school. J.E.

Jamerson & Sons hired a subcontractor to put the roof on.

It wasn't long before the roof - which is flat and is designed to channel

water to downspouts - started causing problems. Water seeped inside the

structure.

Those leaks created many of the same problems the school was still

experiencing this year - ceiling tiles falling, insulation toppling and

buckets catching water.

In 1982, when the building was 10 years old, the School Board started asking

for money to replace the roof.

" The original roof was bad, so the School Board got the money to install the

second roof, " Overstreet said.

But the replacement was even worse. The roofing company reimbursed the

school system some of the costs, Overstreet said.

Throughout recent years the county's maintenance crew has tried to help by

patching and repairing the roof.

The third roof was installed the past year. It was finished in early April.

Three weeks later the school was closed.

s s s

Betsy Beam started working as the school nurse in 1999. She started keeping

meticulous records of students' complaints. It wasn't long before she

noticed a pattern in the complaints.She said there was an increase

particularly in headaches among students and teachers. Then she noticed

increases in flu-like symptoms, sore throats, allergies and asthma. Beam

also discovered that specific rooms were involved with many of the

complaints. In April 2000, Beam said she suggested to school officials that

air quality testing be done at the school.

Some limited air quality testing had actually been done three months

earlier.

In December 1999, a series of asbestos tests was conducted by Baratta and

Associates of Vinton in response to parents' concerns.

In January 2000, Dusty Ducts of Forest cleaned the ducts at the school. In

February, Doug of Horizon Technologies began asbestos abatement.

Owen, an owner of IMEC Engineers in Lynchburg, said mold and mildew

tests were tacked on with the January asbestos tests. IMEC Engineers took

air samples in four classrooms. This was the first round of air quality

tests not related to asbestos conducted at the school.

Owen said he thinks those four classrooms were chosen in relation to the

asbestos issue. None of the rooms tested last year were among the rooms with

elevated mold levels in April.

Owen contacted the school. In several meetings he told school officials the

test results were all right and there was no health risk.

Rather than have a clinical interpretation done then, Owen said the firm

decided to officially report the data when he released a final report this

summer.

The engineers have never released the data from those tests to the public.

" We don't release raw data, " Owen said. " ... We didn't give out any copies

ourselves. We can't just give out raw numbers. "

Owen said the data was sent to a lab and the results were acceptable, but he

said that the numbers don't mean anything to someone who isn't trained in

that area.

" You can't just talk about an X number, " Owen said. " You've got to put it in

perspective for the public. "

There are no regulations or standards for mold or mildew.

Owen said after the first tests, plans to once more replace the roof were a

consideration.

" They knew they had to fix the roof, " Owen said. " Our plan was to do some

testing as a precautionary measure after the roof was fixed and duct work

was done. "

The firm decided to do more air quality testing once the third roof was put

on the school and release the results from all the testing at that time.

Owen said since people are anxious to see the test results, he plans to

release the clinical interpretations for the tests done in 2000 this week.

Results of the current tests, begun last week at the school, won't be

available until the final report in June.

s s s

No one has stepped forward to take credit for filing the complaint with OSHA

five weeks ago that prompted the latest series of tests and the school's

closing. It wasn't the first complaint filed.

Moeller said he filed a complaint with OSHA around the beginning of last

year.

There was mold growing on ceiling tiles in his classroom, which continually

leaked, Moeller said.

" I actually had a mop and bucket, " he said.

So he filed a complaint with OSHA. Moeller said inspectors checked the

school for water on the floor because there are standards on slipping. But

there are no federal or state standards on mold.

" There are no accepted standards that everybody lives by, " said IMEC's Owen.

Without specific standards, results are interpreted to see how the spores in

the room would affect a sensitive person. And different people have

different levels of sensitivity. A study on molds conducted by Good

Housekeeping laboratories showed that molds could create asthma-like affects

on one person, while creating no problems for another.Many at Jefferson

Forest say the newest roof created new problems.

Last fall, the School Board decided to put a third roof on the high school.

By the time the construction began in November much water damage had already

been caused by major leaks. Those leaks continued right up until the new

roof was in place.

For example, when part of the old roof was pulled off in the early stages of

the construction, a heavy rain fell the last weekend in November causing the

ceiling in the home economics classroom to cave in. As a result, the carpet

had to be removed.

And this is when some people say the current mold problem at Jefferson

Forest began.

" A lot of the problems started when the roof construction started, " Moeller

said.

Moeller said that during construction the classrooms would shake, light

bulbs popped out of sockets and a steel pipe punched through the ceiling

tile in his classroom.

Some teachers say that construction on the roof stirred the mold and caused

it to be airborne and when the new roof was in place it sealed in the

humidity.

Stachybotrys is a mold that requires water and cellulose to grow. The leaks

provided the needed water and the building material provided the necessary

food.

Just before the roof was completed in April, Superintendent Blevins

received a letter from OSHA stating a complaint had been filed.

" Biological contaminants may be present which cause symptoms of respiratory

and mucous irritation, " the letter stated. " These contaminants may breed in

stagnant water that has accumulated in ducts, humidifiers and drain pans, or

where water has collected on ceiling tiles, carpeting or insulation. ...

Although there are no occupational health standards governing this

condition, the problem is real and can get progressively worse. "

Blevins immediately contacted IMEC. The previous testing schedule was

accelerated to begin the following week.

" When that complaint came in, I immediately took action on that, " Blevins

said. " ... I wanted somebody to tell me how to resolve this issue and that's

why we went to IMEC. "

The firm tested a third of the building for biological contaminants.

When the results came back at the end of April, school officials decided to

close and seal five classrooms. Two days later, school officials decided to

go further and Jefferson Forest High School was closed for the remainder of

the school year.

Since April 28, IMEC Engineers have been collecting data throughout the

entire building.

Those results will tell school officials what course to take in correcting

any problems and whether students will be able to return to the building in

the fall.

All contents copyright ©2000 The News & Advance

The News & Advance

101 Wyndale Drive

Lynchburg, Va. 24501

804-385-5400