A state inspector visited Wiscasset Middle School Friday, March 27 to test the basement for mold – an inspection conducted to address community concerns expressed as the primary and middle schools prepare for consolidation.
Larry Mare, an engineering technician with the State Division of Safety and Environmental Services, conducted an air quality investigation and visual inspection for mold at the Wiscasset Middle School in January.
The January inspection did not find any visible signs of mold. It did record an abnormally high concentration of airborne particles in the basement compared to the average for the rest of the school.
Airborne particles encompass a wide variety of material, such as dust, pollen, hair, mold, smoke, and dander, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The test used during the January inspection was unable to specify what particles it recorded.
Mare returned to the school Friday, March 27 at the request of interim Superintendent Lyford Beverage to take samples of particle matter in the basement to test the basement for mold. The results of the samples are expected by the end of the week, Beverage said.
Mare did identify some areas of concern on reinspection, Beverage said, and the administration is working to fix those problems.
The issue of mold in the basement of Wiscasset Middle School was raised during public comment at the Thursday, March 26 school committee meeting. Notification of the inspection was included in the superintendent’s report but not discussed during the meeting.
Parents Michaela West and Andrea Main voiced their concern about a history of mold in the middle school basement, which is slated for use as student space when the primary school consolidates with the middle school. According to West, certain rooms in the basement have not been used due to the mold problem.
In the 2015-2016 school year, the basement will be put into full use for students, Beverage said. There are five rooms in the basement, in addition to the kitchen and cafeteria, Beverage said. The band room is located in the basement, Beverage said. The use for the basement’s additional rooms has not been established yet, Beverage said.
According to Beverage, the complaints of mold in the basement have a historical basis. Rain water on the south end of the middle school’s new wing, where the band room is located, is not being shed away from the building due to the landing stoop, Beverage said.
The water is known to trickle down the building’s foundation and occasionally leaks into the band room, Beverage said. There has been mold found there in the past, however, it has been abated and is not an ongoing problem, he said.
The complaints expressed by parents and teachers are focused on the north side of the basement, Beverage said. The school committee has been working on the issue and brought in the state inspector to examine the building in January.
The issue of mold in the basement of the middle school was a contentious issue at the school committee meeting. While the inspector was brought back in due to concerns circulating in the community, some members of the school committee pointed to the results of the previous inspection, which found no area of concern that would require further inspection.
In January, Mare conducted a full indoor air quality inspection of the middle school. The inspection was a phase 1 investigation. If areas of concern were identified, the inspection would progress to more in-depth testing in phase 2.
Mare tested the air for temperature, humidity, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds, and particle counts. All areas were cleared as normal in the report. However, the particle count recorded an above-average count of particles in room six in the basement.
According to the report, there are no government guidelines for particle counts related to indoor air quality or health and safety. The report also noted that reconciling particle counts taken by equipment to actual particulate concentration was subject to significant error.
The outdoor particle count on Jan. 22, when the inspection took place, was 27.18 total particle mass, or TPM, a measurement of the concentration of the total particles in the atmosphere. The average particle count throughout the middle school was 44.64 TPM.
The reading for room six in the basement was 222.65 TPM. The next highest TPM reading was in the principal’s room, which had a recorded 94.99 TPM.
The enormous jump in the particle count in the basement is due to a broken ventilation system, Beverage said. The school is working to fix the ventilation system through an energy conservation performance contract the Wiscasset School Department has with Siemens Industry Inc., Beverage said.
Mare conducted a visual inspection for mold at the middle school, in addition to the air quality tests, in January. The visual inspection found no mold and Mare concluded in his January report there was no need for a phase 2 investigation.
Upon reinvestigation, Mare did find some areas of the basement that “looked kind of funky,” Beverage said. According to Beverage, Mare may have identified the source of the musty smell in the basement – a hutch in the ventilation system that was not properly sealed.
Mare also took four or five draw samples from the basement, Beverage said. According to Beverage, the draw samples lifted particle matter from the basement and transferred the matter to slides to be tested. The results from the draw samples are expected by the end of the week.
Despite disagreement about whether a further investigation was needed, all school committee members expressed their desire to fix the problem at the middle school if there is one.
“Everyone agrees if there’s mold we want to find it and abate the problem,” Beverage said. “There’s no disagreement about that whatsoever.”
