Air quality tests at Bench Elementary School recently detected low levels of toxic mold.
 
Parents were notified by letter last week that the district had sealed up a crawlspace below the school, where administrators believe the mold may be growing.
 
Plans include continued testing.
 
Several teachers reported experiencing eye, nose and throat irritation and their classrooms were tested for the microscopic mold spores, said Bench Elementary Principal John English.
 
Of the four rooms tested, three showed only traces of mold at a rate significantly lower than what is generally found outside the building. In the fourth room, the test detected spores from the Stachybotrys black mold at a concentration of 22 spores per cubic meter of air.
 
Stachybotrys mold releases a toxin that, in healthy people, may cause symptoms similar to hay fever, including watery eyes, runny nose and sneezing. Some people with allergies, asthma or lung diseases are likely to have more severe symptoms. The toxins pose the greatest risk to infants, and in rare extreme cases, have resulted in infant deaths.
 
After the crawlspace was sealed and the room disinfected, a follow-up test was conducted and no Stachybotrys mold spores were detected.
 
English said water was discovered in the crawlspace at Bench Elementary after the heavy snowstorm last October and the space was pumped, cleaned and dried. Water has seeped into the crawlspace on previous occasions as well.
Molds of all kinds are present indoors and outdoors, and spores can be brought into a building through an open door, window or ventilation duct.
 
Billings School District Facilities Director Rich Whitney said air quality tests were run at Newman Elementary and Riverside and Lewis and Clark middle schools as well. He said the tests did not indicate a health hazard at any of the schools.
"I haven't heard any further concerns from folks at those schools, but the people at Bench still have concerns, so we're doing further testing there," he said.
 
During Christmas break the district plans to check the air in the crawlspaces under the school, English said. Next summer, Bench is scheduled to have its heating and ventilation system replaced. At that time, the crawlspaces will be inspected again.
 

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