Thursday night, the Leander Independent School Board will decide if Grandview Hills Elementary School should receive millions of dollars to fix a mold problem. That's the new school off of 620 that's being renovated from a former chemical plant into an elementary school. It's another setback for the school that has been plagued with concerns from parents over the safety of the site.

School officials let KXAN Austin News' cameras inside so you can see what the mold problem looks like. The panels of insulation either had water damage or mold growing on them.

The reason for the multi-million dollar price tag is that everything from the insulation to the exterior brickwork needs to come out and be replaced.

"We prefer to replace the entire exterior brickwork, pull all that insulation, and be sure that before anyone comes in this building that there's no place that mold can grow," said LISD Communication Director Bill Britcher.

The $3.7 million would come from interest earnings within existing bond funds.

Earlier this week, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality released its report on the chemicals that remain on the site. They gave it a four out of five ranking, meaning it has a moderate-to-high potential hazard.

However, district officials said this does not signal a new problem.

"The level four is exactly what we would expect to have on this site because level four says that you have identified a chemical that needs to be removed and that you know the source," said Britcher.

To fix the problem, the retention pond needs to be scraped out. Once that is done, officials with the TCEQ will be back out to retest the area.

http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=6780018&nav=0s3d
 
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