nbc4.com
School Officials Tour Moldy School
Overcrowding A Bigger Problem After School Closes Portable Classrooms POSTED: 6:59 pm EST March 22, 2006
UPDATED: 8:55 pm EST March 22, 2006
POTOMAC, Md. -- Montgomery County school officials toured a local elementary school Wednesday after the discovery of mold in two portable classrooms.
Some parents said their children got sick because of the mold, and there's concern other portable classrooms may have the same problem. The parents noticed sick children were coming from the same portable classrooms at Bells Mill Elementary School.
High concentrations of mold led to the permanent closing of the portable classrooms in late February.
"The county is not telling us or admitting that the reason they are sick is because of the portables," said concerned parent Cari Paven. "And yet, when the children are taken out of the portables -- and the teachers -- and put in the building -- which, by the way, is completely overcrowded, now -- they get better."
School board members who toured the school Wednesday learned that the already overcrowded school is even more crowded now that music class is held in a utility room, a storage room is used as a classroom and specialized instruction takes place in hallways.
Montgomery County has more than 700 portable classrooms -- 140 are 11 years old -- and there is concern that there may be more undiscovered breading places for mold and health problems.
Pure Air Control Services, Inc.
1-800-422-7873
