Monessen School District delays start of school year after fungus found behind building walls
Click here for updates on this story
WESTMORELAND COUNTY, Pennsylvania (KDKA) — The Monessen School District has delayed the start of the school year until Tuesday, Sept. 8, as a precautionary measure while it completes what it calls “necessary building maintenance.”
Earlier this week, the district said it discovered “abnormalities” behind walls in several parts of the middle-high school building while performing routine summer maintenance, prompting air quality testing throughout the entire school.
The abnormalities were first discovered near the gym, then behind walls in several restrooms. Work was immediately stopped, the affected areas were secured and sealed off and administrators were notified.
The district on Saturday released its findings from the aforementioned air quality tests.
The results found fungal growth on water-damaged building materials as well as low airborne levels of mold. The report also said some water-damaged materials cannot be adequately cleaned and will need to be removed.
The fungal growth was found in bathrooms and the concession room, and low levels of mold were found in the cafeteria.
“There’s constant leaks; there was constant talk about it,” said Charity Parham, who worked as a personal aide in the second half of this past school year and has a daughter in second grade at their elementary school. “I personally never saw fungus. However, you could always tell in certain bathrooms there was that very disgusting smell. [It] didn’t matter how hard the janitors worked to clean it.
“It’s not surprising. They knew about it last year. They had plenty of time to fix it, and now they’re affecting the parents and the students,” Parham said. “My daughter is very upset. She looks forward to school every year. It sets off people’s plans that are lining up childcare for their younger children.”
Parham placed blame on the school board, saying this incident has been frustrating.
“This could have been fixed many times, a long time ago, and instead they were too busy worrying about the budget deficits.”
She’s unconvinced the Sept. 8 date will be enough time to fix these schools. She also has concerns about the elementary school.
KDKA-TV reached out to the district superintendent to ask for an interview. He said he’d be available to speak about the issue on Monday.
Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.