Franklin addressing mold issue in high school storage room

On Oct. 10, several teachers raised concerns with building Principal Jim McFarland, who then contacted Superintendent Michael Sander. A meeting was held the next day with Sander, McFarland and Craig Hatfield, the district’s business manager. They hired a company to do air quality testing and to do heavy cleaning of the buildings air handlers. Sander said air quality samples were taken outside the building as well as inside the building where the teachers had concerns.

The district received the results of the air quality samples from 10 areas of the building and outside the building as a baseline on Oct. 21. The results identified seven rooms with total spore concentrations that range from 270 to 1,800, which were in the low to moderate ranges.

Sander said storage room 110 had a total spore concentration of 2,100 which was in the high range. At that point, he said the room was isolated and the locks were changed to prevent anyone from getting into the room.

However, in comparison, the total spore concentration outside of the building was 10,000, which was five times the amount recorded in the storage room.

Michelle Paranuik, president of Paran Consulting Services, a Cincinnati-based industrial and consulting company that did the air quality testing, made several recommendations that included:

* The source of potential water intrusion, suspected to be condensation on piping located above the ceiling, should be corrected.

* A mold remediation contractor, using proper work practices and engineering controls, should be retained to remediate storage room 110.

* Rooms with moderate mold scores should be thoroughly cleaned, damage ceiling tiles replaced, and the HVAC system serviced.

* A schedule of routine maintenance of the HVAC system should be developed and implemented.

* Subsequent to corrective measures, repeat air sampling should be performed.

Sander said Thursday that all of the rooms have been thoroughly cleaned, and the deep cleaning of the storage room is scheduled for Friday as school is not in session.

He said the air filters in the building will be changed every six months during Christmas and summer breaks and another round of air quality sampling will be performed after all of the deep cleaning is completed.

“We’re going to start checking for all particulates to make sure the building is safe for our students and staff,” Sander said. “I wouldn’t have students or staff in any part of the building that wasn’t safe.”