Health and education officials inspected a Point Harmony Elementary School portable classroom Tuesday after a teacher complained about mold at the school.
 
Second grade teacher Maryann Nichols alleges that she and some students have a difficult time breathing in the classroom. Students also have experienced dizziness, headaches and unexplained nosebleeds, according to a teachers’ union official.
 
“I’ve been sick for a year,” Nichols said Tuesday. “It’s a mold issue. There’s white stuff growing in the grooves. I’m disgusted with it all.”
 
Parents met with inspectors from the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department and state Department of Education at the Cross Lanes school Tuesday.
 
“I was in that classroom for 15 minutes, and after 25 minutes, I could feel a tightness in my chest,” said Nick Roberson, a West Virginia Education Association official who represents Nichols. “The county has been dragging its heels in realizing there is a problem and doing something about it.”
 
Kanawha County school board members plan to discuss the matter at a meeting Thursday.
Kanawha County Schools Maintenance Director Terry Hollandsworth said school officials are taking the allegations seriously.
 
A Department of Education air-quality team already has inspected the portable classroom and recommended changes. The inspectors found higher-than-normal levels of carbon dioxide. No mold was found, however.
 
Maintenance workers have scrubbed the classroom and installed a new water heater, Hollandsworth said.
 
School officials also have hired a company to test the classroom for mold. The test results are expected by the end of this week or early next week.
 
“We don’t want children to be in a bad situation,” Hollandsworth said. “If we find mold, we will get it cleaned up.”
 
Roberson said Nichols has complained about mold in the classroom for nearly a year. Parents have been asking the county to remove the portables during the past several years.
 
“She wants to see the problem resolved for herself and her students,” Roberson said.
 
Kanawha school officials said Nichols declined to move to a classroom inside the school after being offered a reading specialist job.
 

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