Recent allegations of
"toxic mold" at May Whitney Elementary School made
by the Chicago-based union SEIU Local 1, Gustavo
Gomez, an Aramark custodian, and several others
appear to be without merit judging by the results of
extensive mold testing that was done March 21 by
Environ, a full service environmental health and
safety consulting firm with expertise in industrial
hygiene, asbestos services, environmental audits,
indoor environmental quality and other related
areas.
Even though previous
air samplings conducted last fall and in February
showed no problem with mold, Mary Kalou, Assistant
Superintendent of Business & Operations for
Community Unit School District 95, asked Environ to
conduct an independent mold investigation in
response to concerns raised by a small group of
residents regarding the August test results. The
District first learned of the concerns of the
Aramark custodian after the March 21 testing had
been scheduled and over 6 months after his alleged
discovery.
As part of their
investigation, Environ conducted visual inspections
of 16 classrooms/areas, took air samplings of six
classrooms/areas, and conducted carpeting sampling
of four classrooms/areas.
According to the
report provided by Environ, which was shared with
the Board of Education at its April 24 meeting,
"Based on the findings of the visual inspection and
testing there was no indication that mold growth was
a problem in the representative areas included in
this survey."
The report also noted
the following:
-
Overall, clean
classrooms were observed during the visual
inspection of all selected rooms.
-
Minor
discoloration of ceiling tiles were found in a
few classrooms and in the library area. Tests
for moisture content found these tiles to be dry
at the time of the survey, with no visible mold
found in these areas.
-
Inspection above ceiling tile
found no evidence of mold.
-
Air sample results contained
typical spore levels and genus distributions
commonly found indoors outdoors, with overall
levels being very low.
-
Results of dust samples from
carpets analyzed for fungal content showed
typical fungal levels. An uncommon mold,
Aspergillus sydowii, was found in a single
classroom carpet at a very low rate of 8%. These
levels would not be considered evidence of mold
growth in carpet. If mold growth were occurring,
then higher levels would be expected.
The report also offered
recommendations to reduce the risk of future mold
growth, including replacing discolored ceiling tiles
and future monitoring for these areas to ensure that
no recurrent moisture problems
After sharing the information with
the Board of Education, Kalou placed the full
Environ report on the district’s website (www.lz95.org)
so that staff, parents and the entire community
could review the results.
"We had this mold investigation done
so that we could offer reassurance to our students,
parents and said Kalou. "Baseless allegations, such
as the ones made by Mr. Gomez, SEIU and others,
serve no purpose other than to scare people.
Hopefully, people can now read the facts and ignore
the fiction created by others."
The full Environ report entitled:
Mold Inspection and Testing – May Whitney Elementary
School found under the "Updates" section of the
main page of the district website
www.lz95.org
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