Mold and poor ventilation continued to plague some Montgomery County Public School buildings as students returned to the classroom.
“We have a number of schools that we are monitoring very closely,” Thomas Taylor, superintendent, said during Thursday’s Board of Education business meeting.
The district is conducting “significant remediation and cleaning,” Taylor said, adding that the schools involved are being kept updated.
“This is going to be an ongoing problem,” said Taylor. He said its because school buildings have not been maintained on a regular basis, with many projects pushed to a later date. “It is something that is going to take us many years to correct,” Taylor said.
“We take this very seriously. Health and safety are very important to us,” he said.
Christine Handy, president of the Montgomery County Association of Administrators and Principals, described working conditions in the Carver Education Services Center in Rockville.
The building has mold, bugs that bite and inadequate ventilation, she said.
There are black mold spots that have been painted over, yet continue to reappear, she told board members. People suffer from bug bites and rashes, she added.
“Some colleagues refuse to work in certain rooms, because colleagues have become ill,” Handy said.
“Basically, we keep putting a Band-Aid on this building,” Handy said. She pointed out the Board of Education and Taylor moved out of Carver and now work in a newer building on Hungerford Drive in Rockville.
Taylor told Handy that the school district is well aware of the problem. “This has received our full attention,” he said.
