Mold grew in empty schools during the pandemic

As classrooms stayed empty to protect students and teachers from COVID-19, another public health concern was growing in Broward County schools — mold.

Sightings of mold, a fungus known to grow in damp areas, grew as teachers and administrators started returning to campus in August. It was found on student desks, laptops, walls, bookcases, books, air conditioner filters and ceiling tiles at more than 20 schools.

The large presence of mold has raised questions about how ready Broward schools are for students’ return. Prolonged mold exposure can cause a gamut of problems — from allergies to neurological dysfunction — and is particularly harmful to children.

Students in grades 2 and below, as well as some special needs students, returned Friday, with more students returning Tuesday and Thursday. Six schools are being delayed until late October due to repairs to air conditioners.

Inspectors with the school district’s environmental health department received requests from at least 40 of the district’s 233 schools to check air quality in recent months. Mold was found in more than half of those schools.

“I wish I could say I’m shocked that the district has allowed mold and mildew to grow in classrooms, but I’m not,” said Nathalie Lynch-Walsh, who chairs the Facilities Task Force, a district watchdog group. “Indoor air quality was clearly not a concern over the summer because no one was there.”

The district pledged to fix mold, flooding and other problems with an $800 million bond program to replace roofs and air conditioners. But six years after passage, fewer than 20 of 233 projects are complete.

District officials did not provide the status for most issues identified in reports. But they said mold issues are addressed and remediated soon after complaints are received.

Superintendent Robert Runcie said the district took steps from the start of the pandemic to protect buildings from mold and other issues that could be related to a prolonged shutdown.

“Our maintenance workers were constantly running water, flushing systems,” he said. “We made sure we ran our systems so our schools would be maintained. There was a deliberate effort to make sure our systems were working.”

But problems in at least two schools were attributed to air conditioners being shut off.

There’s no indication the number of mold complaints is higher than in past years. The district’s environmental teams review classrooms only when there are complaints, and few complaints came in while schools were closed from April to July.

But reports indicate the cases at some schools are more dramatic than seen before the pandemic.

At Northeast High in Oakland Park, a poster child for the district’s bond program, power was turned off to a building for an unknown time, causing mold, a Sept. 2 assessment found. “All metal door interior slabs covered with heavy spotting, restroom doors both sides spotted. Very heavy musty odor. Moldy/water stained ceiling tiles throughout," the report says.

At Walter C. Young Middle in Pembroke pines, mold was found on all ceiling tiles in one classroom, as well as tables, chairs and student desks, laptops and a laptop bag, an Aug. 12 review found.

At New Renaissance Middle in Miramar, mold was spotted on eight student desks and multiple chairs and tables in two classrooms, a Sept. 15 review found. Nearly all the ceiling tiles in these classrooms were missing or covered with mold.

At Parkway Middle in Lauderhill, mold was spotted in four classrooms, staining ceilings, carpet and a laptop bag and attracting sugar ants, according to a review conducted Aug. 11.

The issues at Parkway Middle were still a sore spot for community residents at a Sept. 25 community forum.

“There’s mold and there’s mildew. You can see it from the outside of the building,” Samuel Wilkerson, a community activist in Lauderhill, said at the meeting.

Michelle Jones, who lives in nearby Tamarac, posted on the forum’s Facebook page, “Parkway Middle is not a safe place for students to return due to the mold that has been there for several years and the deplorable conditions.”

Runcie and School Board member Rosalind Osgood said many of Parkway Middle’s most decrepit buildings are being demolished and won’t be used anymore as other buildings are being renovated.

“We’re not spending money to maintain any buildings that have been slated for demolition so yes, you’ll probably find mold in there,” Runcie said at the meeting. “Are you going to find those conditions in the classrooms still in use? No. It does happen periodically, but we have a system in place to make sure we can contain it."

Issues at some schools appear to have been resolved quickly.

Mold developed in a classroom after a water leak last month at New River Middle in Fort Lauderdale, but maintenance workers came the next day to repair the damage, Principal Melinda Wessinger said.

“They cut away the drywall and aired it all out," she said. "They were like on the spot. Very fast.”

Air quality has been a major focus of the district’s maintenance department, and about 1,400 work orders have been completed this year, Runcie said.

“Mold is everywhere. It needs to be at an acceptable level, so we make sure we try to address it,” he said.

According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and prevention, people who are sensitive to molds can develop nasal stuffiness, throat irritation, coughing or wheezing, eye irritation or skin irritation. People with allergies to mold can develop more severe reactions, and immune-compromised people can suffer serious lung infections if they get exposed to mold.

There’s no known direct connection between mold and COVID-19, other than both can lead to respiratory problems, said Dr. Debra Robinson, a retired physician who serves on the Palm Beach County School Board.

In 2003, a grand jury slammed the district for an insufficient response to rampant mold problems. It ordered school officials to take a proactive approach to the mold battle, identify the state of the air quality in all of its schools and fix roof leaks and water intrusions as quickly as possible.

“The first priority of any school construction in South Florida should be to keep out the rain. The second should be to make sure the air conditioning systems effectively cool and dehumidify the buildings,” the report said.

Mold problems probably are more severe than the district’s assessments show. The district responds to complaints but doesn’t do regular inspections.

“We’ve got 36 million square feet of space, so that’s not feasible to do,” Runcie said. “Someone has to let us know there’s an issue, or it’s discovered as part of a [renovation] project.”

Lynch-Walsh of the Facilities Task Force said the district can do better.

“The district is never proactive, always reactive,” she said.

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