St. East Mold reports delayed for school panel

June 8, 2001

Mold reports delayed for school panel

By Girardi

SPECIAL TO THE BEACON NEWS

ST. CHARLES - The clock is ticking on St. East.

Kane County Regional School Superintendent Clem Mejia said this week he

supports the school district's goal to open the now-closed school on Sept.

4. But without necessary environmental and architectural reports to address

mold problems, the date could be pushed back.

" It makes it tougher to achieve, " Mejia said after convening the first

meeting of his Community Advisory Team, studying the problems at the school

shuttered because of toxic molds found in the building.

The 13-member panel had been anticipating receiving a report from the

Illinois State Board of Education's architect Marty . However, Mejia

said he was notified the state needed more information and time to give

legal counsel an opportunity to review the report.

The panel was also expecting a report from AAA-Environmental, the school

district's testing firm responsible for finding mold in the school's Dunham

Wing and other areas of the building which forced the school's closing in

early April.

The district needs the environmental and state's architectural reports in

order to move forward.

" When people give you dates, they set an expectation, " said Steve Cole,

who also serves as a St. School Board member. " There is no excuse

for the delay. "

The state did fax over late Wednesday afternoon the architect's

" preliminary observations. " Mejia said the architect identified areas where

there appears to be water coming into the building, the same observation

given to the district a couple of years ago.

Mejia said the committee would review the architect's report on June 13.

The AAA-Environmental report will be delivered next week.

The School District has scheduled a special board meeting for June 18 to

review the AAA-Environmental report. The meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. at St.

North High School.

Mejia said eventually the committee hopes to receive the school

district's proposal on how it plans to solve the crisis at St. East.

" You are 13 personal advisors each representing a different segment of

the community, " Mejia said. " We want to hear the good, bad and ugly in a

respectful way. "

06/08/01

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