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Date: 9/27/2021
SOUTH HADLEY – The South Hadley Public School District hosted a community forum to keep parents, students, staff and residents informed about the ongoing mold remediation at the South Hadley High School.
Superintendent Jahmal Mosely explained at the beginning of the forum that two entities that had been working with the district, ATC and ServiceMaster by Gilmore, would be joining the forum to answer questions from the community. He said ATC served as environmentalists and hygienists. “They come in and strictly do the testing,” he explained.
ServiceMaster by Gilmore, he said, was responsible for cleaning. He addressed concerns that after five days of remote learning the district would still not be ready to welcome high school students back to the building. “We’re not going to leave anything unexplored,” he said.
The forum, he said, was being hosted as during their last community forum regarding the matter some residents had specific questions for ATC and ServiceMasters.
Cameron Denommee, director of operations for ServiceMaster by Gilmore, said he was also in charge of “running the project” at the high school. He said the project began when they were contacted more than two weeks ago, and after an initial walkthrough they realized “we had a lot of work ahead of us.” He said the team had been cleaning seven days a week since they began the project. “We’re pushing as hard as we can to get this wrapped up as quick as we can. However, we want to make sure we’re doing it the right way,” he said, adding they didn’t want to leave “any stone unturned or anything uncleaned to satisfactory.”
Certified Industrial Hygienist Mike Madeline of ATC said he specialized in indoor air quality and mold. He said South Hadley was not the only school district addressing a mold problem “given this summer, it’s been a horrific summer for humidity and as a result, we’re actually working with several other school systems that are dealing with the same type of issues.” He explained they were hired “about a week ago” to look at the work ServiceMaster was doing and “try to identify an appropriate scope to finish the work up.”
He said a walkthrough of the school had been conducted on Sept. 17 and “saw a bunch of areas that needed work and we made recommendations relative to what we saw and tested.” He said ServiceMaster had been completing the work. He went on to explain the air samples for mold “would never get to a level of zero.” This, he said, was due to mold levels increasing outside during the summer months. He said this was because mold was “throughout the environment.”
“Typically they’re not an issue, but when they have water, there’s a water leak or high humidity, they can start growing. And that’s basically what happened in your school as well as many other buildings throughout the northeast with the humid conditions we’ve had this summer,” he said.
South Hadley Public Schools Business Administrator Jennifer Voyik read questions and served as a moderator to the forum. The first question asked Mosely was what would happen if the school would not be able to be in use on Sept. 23 when the district’s remote days ran out. Mosley explained there were several options, but “everything is on the table.”
“We can continue with remote learning provided we get that support from DESE [Department of Elementary and Secondary Education] if that’s an option,” he said. Mosley said another option would be to make up days later in the year, which he said was “not ideal, but another option.”
The next question asked if there would be new cleaning procedures in place following the return to the building due to the presence of mold. Mosley said there would “absolutely” be measures in place to ensure a similar situation did not happen again. “After all this we’re going to do an autopsy, and it’s not anything negative,” he said, adding that the district would make sure to have the proper “staffing, equipment and training” so they could be “hypervigilant” should similar weather patterns take place in the future.
When asked about the district’s communication with DESE, Voyik said they had been “keeping DESE in the loop.” Mosely added that he had taken part in a conversation with Voyik and DESE officials that evening prior to the meeting. He said they shared progress with DESE, answered questions and listened to any recommendations the department gave. When asked about checking other buildings for mold, Mosely said they would “absolutely” be checking other buildings and how to prevent mold not just at the high school, but other buildings as well. Voyik said there was “open communication” between principals and building maintenance so they can investigate anything that was reported by building staff. This, she said, would help eliminate any problems before they became as serious as the mold at the high school was.
When asked about the number of classrooms impacted by the mold, Denommee said it was “all 69 classrooms in the school.” Following a statement that the days missed would be made up by the end of the year, Voyik said this wasn’t possible as “we’d go past June 30.” She said the district was working with the union, the transportation company and food service. “We can not go past June 30, so we have to look at alternative dates on where we can make up those days. We do not know when those days are going to be yet, we’re still working on that,” she said.
When asked about the HVAC system, Denommee said both the system and univents were cleaned. It was then explained to the general public that the univent was the air intake vent in each classroom. Later in the conversation when asked about the lack of a facilities manager in the district and who would oversee the buildings, Mosely said, “We have to hire one.”
However, he said he felt as though it was more than just one position. “I think there’s more to this than the facilities manager. I think there’s admin support for that person, I think there’s a capital improvement plan district-wide that needs to be developed, I think that this isn’t the last conversation we’re going to have about the high school,” he said, adding the next building they have “serious concerns about” is the Mosier Elementary School.
In one of the final questions of the night, it was asked if students, staff and faculty returning to the building would impact the growth of mold. Madeline explained that the building being occupied would “help the mold growth get back to equilibrium.” He explained heating the building, as well as opening windows and regulating air quality would help. He emphasized that they would not get all of the mold, and as the school reopened it would be a process for addressing any additional mold growth that was found.
Following the forum, Mosely requested additional two remote learning days for the South Hadley High School on Sept. 21. In the request to DESE, Mosely provided a timeline which, given the worst case scenario, would allow teachers back in the building on Sept. 27 and the resuming of in-person learning on Sept. 28. The remote learning days would take place on Sept. 24 and 24 to provide additional time for cleaning and final testing. On Sept. 22, DESE Commissioner Jeff Riley granted the district’s request for two additional days.