OLYMPIA - A health concern at a local high school is more widespread then first thought and is going to cost twice as much to fix. It has to with mold at Capital High School in Olympia.
 
Olympia School District spokesman shows the mold, "You can see it extends about an inch, inch and a half." The mold is found along the baseboards of 36 classrooms.
 
Work teams in protective gear are sealed off inside the plastic containment area working to get rid of the mold. But district folks don't believe it's from leaky roofs or walls. It could be from wet construction material when the school was remodeled 5 years ago or from the normal cleaning process where the carpets weren't completely dried.
 
But health officials tell the district it's not an urgent problem.
 
"In fact, our consultant said: 'You can take care of this when you get around to it,' and we said, 'No we want to take care of it right away.' Because they said, 'This is fairly minor and doesn't present any health concerns to staff or students,' but we want to move forward aggressively and take care of it," said Peter Rex of Olympia School District.
 
Three feet around the walls and a foot of carpet are being replaced in all of the affected classrooms.
 
A lot of school districts have to respond to the mold problems because of complaints from students and teachers. But in this case, Capital High is going through a major remodeling project and it was the contractors who found the problem.
 
"It was pretty surprising actually, it was a shock to me," said student Ben Hollingsworth. "I'm glad they found it though."
 
There's a rush to get the work done before school starts in a month at the cost of a half-million dollars.
 
"They are certainly very committed to getting this done so that we have a safe and healthy environment to start school," Capital H.S. principal Teri Poff said.
 
It now means two sets of construction teams are facing that deadline. One is getting rid of the mold, and the other is putting on a new face for the high school.
 
The district hopes to learn the exact cause of the mold in 2-to-3 weeks.
 

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