mold at Rolling Terrace elementary -- community meeting on 9/16/2013 @ 6:30p

[Anonymous]

There is a community meeting tonight at Rolling Terrace Elementary School where teachers, staff, and students have been exposed to mold. Parents have received only one written communication. The Principal was quoted in an ABC7 segment that it was a budget issue because they do not have money to replace an old HVAC system. Please attend tonight and spread the world: our county's educators and students deserve a learning environment free of mold which can cause a host of health conditions.

[Anonymous]

I've got torches. You bring the pitchforks!

[Anonymous]

Any updates on this?

[Anonymous]

What exactly is the story? Did they discover mold and now they're remediating? Did anyone get sick? Did they discover mold but can't pay to remediate so the students are left with questionable air quality? I assume there is a legal obligation to remove toxins from the air etc., so even if it's not currently budgeted, presumably someone is on it, no?

[Anonymous]

I don't see the connection between mold and an old HVAC system. Mold needs water and a surface to grow on. You fix the water problem and clean the surface to remove the mold.

[Anonymous]

oh nooooo larla might sneeze

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:oh nooooo larla might sneeze

You've experienced an asthma attack where your chest tightens and your breathing is constricted? You've had to gasp for air and needed an emergency inhaler to get your breath to stabilize. You've been hospitalized with a breathing treatment.
You've had to pay the bill for the medical procedures to get your child's breathing stabilized and get them well enough to attend school.

Making fun of children who can't breathe is part of being an MCPS teacher?

[Anonymous]

And I'm not sure you've got tons of parents-of-Larla-types at rolling terrace. Or maybe she's making fun of MCPS, because truly the attitude of "what's a little bad air" seems consistent with their indifference to some very serious issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And I'm not sure you've got tons of parents-of-Larla-types at rolling terrace. Or maybe she's making fun of MCPS, because truly the attitude of "what's a little bad air" seems consistent with their indifference to some very serious issues.

Sure there are plenty of Larla types... Rolling Terrace is home to one of the immersion programs.

[Anonymous]

Visible mold was discovered at the school as early as August 21 or 22, and then in 17 classrooms on Sept 3. One classroom and a teachers office was not able to be remediated. Multiple children have suffered severe respiratory problems and sought treatment at local ERs and physicians. To date the school has only distributed one letter and it did not include the specifics above.

Regarding the "Larla" post...please be grateful for whatever life it is you live where you have not encountered asthma. Shame on you.

[Anonymous]

Is mold an issue at a lot of county schools because of HVAC problems? I know there have been budget issues and delays in updating HVAC systems. Is it believed that the outdated HVAC is harboring or somehow the cause of the mold? If you attended the meeting, was there any sort of commitment to fix things? Are we talking black mold?

[Anonymous]

Interesting. Aside from the two PPs above, I've not heard a word of hospitalizations, emergencies, etc. If that's actually happening, why hasn't there been any media noise about it? If the news was willing to run a story about how there was a mold problem, surely they'd run a second to say children were being hospitalized!

Mold is less than great, sure. It's also pretty normal in a humid climate, especially when air systems may be going wonky, leading to condensation issues, etc.

From all I've heard and read, this is being actively managed. I'm not sure what last night's meeting was supposed to accomplish. Any updates?

[Anonymous]

Rolling Terrace parent here. I think the biggest issue here is communication as parents were not initially informed about the issue. They cancelled a back to school night saying " something needed to be done" without saying that something was mold remediation nor letting the broader school community know (those who didn't have the back to school night cancelled". Thank you to our PTA who were able to spread the word via the list serve.

I don't think the issue is as big as its been made out to be (hopefully) but the lack of transparency/ communication has only exascerbated the problem.

[Anonymous]

I'm still not seeing the connection between mold and the HVAC system. Many schools in the county did not have air conditioning till about 5 years ago. They didn't complain of mold throughout the school.

I do know mold spores can be spread through systems that circulate air from room to room. Was there a leak that went undetected over the summer and caused the mold to not be discovered till the beginning of school? Mold is treatable, you just need to eliminate the cause.

[Anonymous]

Actually it was the a/c system that caused the mold, or at least that is what the Director of MCPS Facilities Management and the one pager to RT parents that another poster mentioned above explained. The mix of high humidity, HVAC control failure, and malfunctioning/changed settings in classroom thermostats were the cause. The facilities guy also admitted repeatedly that nearly all parts of the HVAC were already 'past their expected lifetime'.

And of course there's no need to complain about mold if a school doesn't have mold. Not sure how that would be relevant to the fact that this school had mold and parents were not informed until two weeks after it was discovered.

Another fact from last night's meeting was that there were other reports of mold in MCPS schools, but RT was the worst.