It’s not exactly back to school for some elementary school students in Freehold Township, New Jersey: They won’t return to their usual classrooms after the district discovered mold throughout a school building.
The superintendent of the district, Neal Dickstein, announced in an email to parents last week that students at Laura Donovan Elementary School will spend at least part of the school year at other schools because of the mold.
The district will scatter its students from Laura Donovan Elementary School in other elementary schools throughout the Freehold Township School District, though they will remain taught by Donovan school teachers.
Students will have the option to take buses to their temporary schools.
“While we know this is disappointing for our Donovan families, the goals remain to keep students safe and to minimize disruption to the schedules of our families,” Dickstein said in a statement to WNYC.
Dickstein told parents in letter emailed Aug. 28th that a remediation company has been working “seven days per week” to fix the problem, which was first discovered in July. However, they were unable to solve it in time for the start of the school year, which is Sept. 5.
He said that the district expects the disruptions to the school year at the Laura Donovan building “may last several months.”
In a separate, Aug. 30 letter, Dickstein told parents that mold had returned after initial remediation efforts. Further testing from indoor air quality consultants also contracted by the district showed high humidity levels inside the school, which Dickstein said is “considered to be an environment conducive to mold growth.”
Laura Donovan Elementary School first opened in 1968. About 450 students attend the school, according to its website.