KENNEBUNK—Kennebunk Elementary School has been working to remove mold from its building for nearly a month.

Richard Terwilliger-Smith, the operations director for RSU 21, provided an extended update on the situation at the Sept. 25 school board meeting. The school district said it has moved to address the issue, but one parent present at the school board meeting questioned whether the school was downplaying the seriousness of the problem. Its correspondence to parents has also offered a more selective account of the mold problem compared to what is detailed in two reports done by an outside inspector.

The school was first sampled for mold by an outside inspector on Sept. 14 and two rounds of remediation have taken place since, including a round earlier this week. On Monday, a contractor performed remediation on four specific rooms as well as additional cleaning, and on Wednesday all classrooms, as well as the library, cafeteria, art room, board room, and parks and rec room were tested for mold.

Terwilliger-Smith’s presentation gave the basics of the mold situation: The school is dealing with Aspergillus/Penicillium, a common indoor mold type found in a variety of habitats, which festered due to the especially wet summer that Maine had this year. The initial rooms identified included two storage closets, the north wing hallway of the school, a special education room, and two classrooms. He said that the air samples taken in these rooms revealed mold levels up to 4,900 spores per cubic meter, but noted that a consultant had told him a school in a different part of Maine is experiencing much higher levels — 44,000 spores per cubic meter — “just to give a comparison,” he said.

“It is still mold, it affects people differently … We are definitely taking every precaution. We want to make sure our staff and students are safe,” Terwilliger-Smith assured meeting attendees.

The seriousness of mold exposure to children varies from child to child. According to the Center for Disease Control, some people are unaffected by exposure to moldy environments, while immunocompromised people are at higher risk of infection and people with chronic respiratory disease may experience difficulty breathing. In general, people with allergies are more sensitive to molds.

“I’m a parent of a 4 year old pre-K student at KES. He’s one of those immunocompromised children. So when we’re talking about levels, I actually think what was just stated was slightly misleading,” said Meagan Cooper, who addressed the school board following Terwilliger-Smith’s presentation.

“Generally speaking, a concentration of mold spores below 500 spores per cubic meter is considered normal. A concentration of mold spores above 500 is considered high,” said Cooper. 

Cooper said that after the school sent out an initial note about the mold to parents on Sept. 20,  she contacted KES Principal Ryan Quinn. He gave her a copy of the inspector report dated Sept. 18, which as of the school board meeting had not been shared with all parents. Cooper expressed concern that students were still attending school despite what was outlined in the report.

The Sept. 18 report found “significantly higher than baseline” levels of Aspergillus/Penicillium in the air in four rooms — E109, E103, E102 and C136 — and a visual inspection found mold in the aforementioned rooms and D116. A later, updated version of the report found elevated levels of mold in a sixth room, C137, according to David Singer, communication specialist for RSU 21. These are the six rooms that were rooms discussed in Terwilliger-Smith’s presentation.

The Sept. 20 communication from the school , however, listed only three rooms. “We’re writing to let you know that three rooms in Kennebunk Elementary School tested positive for mold. Only two rooms were rooms that students access and we changed the location of those services; the other room was a storage room. Those rooms remain closed until the mold is removed and a remediation plan is in place. Every room in the school will be treated and cleaned,” said Quinn in an email blast that went out to families and parents.

When asked about the discrepancy, School Superintendent Dr. Terri Cooper said that it was not an omission of information. Instead, she said the school note intentionally only alerted parents about the rooms that were classrooms and occupied by students and staff — though it’s unclear why the storage room was mentioned if the school only intended to tell parents about mold presence in classrooms.

“We were not trying to hide anything. We were trying to be sensitive to the needs of our students and staff,” Dr. Cooper said.

A contractor performed mold remediation on the school between Sept. 27 and Oct. 1 and again on Oct. 3, which included cleaning with an antimicrobial cleaner and using a negative air machine, according to Terwilliger-Smith. The original six rooms and a number of additional rooms were tested for mold last week, and the school received another inspector report on Oct. 5, which showed that the air in rooms E103 and E109 still had elevated levels of Aspergillus/Penicillium. It also identified another type of mold — Cladosporium — in room A123.

A visual inspection of surfaces revealed persistent mold in all of the original rooms and four additional rooms.

On Oct. 5, the school sent out another message to parents, laying out the timeline of recent mold remediation efforts and next steps. The note hyperlinked the two reports issued so far, giving parents access to the full findings of the outside inspector. That message included an update that two of the original rooms and a third room were still testing positive for higher than usual levels of mold in the air.

The correspondence did not mention that mold was also found via visual inspection in additional rooms, though it did allude to additional cleaning and remediation beyond treatment for those three rooms. When asked about why the findings of the visual inspection were not included in the communication to parents, Dr. Cooper did not respond directly. In a follow up email, Singer wrote that “some of the rooms came back with low-level or “below threshold” readings; anywhere that tested positive or had visual evidence of mold was cleaned and treated.”

Another message sent out on Oct. 6 provided a more detailed timeline of the work done earlier this week and announced additional testing.

Reacting to the Oct. 5 communication to parents, Meagan Cooper, the KES parent, said: “[My family and I] are just grateful that all families and staff finally have the same information as we do regarding where the school district is in their remediation process.”

 

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