WESTPORT — Concerns about air quality and mold have been addressed and remediated at Long Lots School, Superintendent Thomas Scarice announced Wednesday morning.

The main areas of concern were the auditorium, which reopened in December after successful retesting, and Room 9, which is still not being used while officials continue to address the space.

“Long Lots Elementary School is not an unsafe building,” Scarice said in a message to families Wednesday. “This statement is backed up by comprehensive testing done by industrial hygienists. The district will vigilantly work to ensure that appropriate levels of indoor air quality are maintained.”

He said the district is working with Langan CT, industrial hygienists, to create a plan to continue to monitor key indicators for mold, such as moisture in the buildings.

“This will enable quick responses in the event of any emerging compromised conditions,” Scarice said. “This will be done visually and digitally by monitoring temperature and humidity levels regularly, along with periodic air sampling of various areas of the building performed by Langan.”

The air quality and possible mold concerns at the building were raised last year, prompting the school to do a comprehensive baseline indoor air quality assessment, which was done by Langan CT on July 30.

The assessment included a visual inspection, both inside and outside of the building. It also involved “comprehensive air sampling” of 22 spaces inside and six spaces outside, Scarice said.

“This valuable assessment demonstrated that the indoor air at Long Lots School (i.e. the air that individuals breathe) all fell within the normal ranges when tested for fungal spores and particles with the exception of two locations, the auditorium and Room 9,” he wrote. “These two locations demonstrated slightly elevated levels of Aspergillus/Penicillium when compared to outdoor air.”

Scarice said the higher spore counts in Room 9 are coming from a doorway that leads to an underground utility crawl space along the building.

“This room remains problematic and will remain offline for the foreseeable future,” he said.

The room was added into the Long Lots building study last year, which was presented last month to the school board. The report outlined potential renovations and raised the possibility of building a new school.

Scarice said the reports are being used to craft a holistic approach to the building overall and any solutions to address the spores in Room 9 will be added into the school board’s long-term capital plan. The consultant, Colliers International, is working on long-term recommendations.

“I want to assure the Long Lots community that this is a high priority for the board and district administration, and there is no intention of letting this decision-making process languish,” he said. “Mid-April is our target to publicly share long-term options and we intend to hit that target.”

Since his update in September, Scarice said an additional small area within some ceiling tiles in a non-instructional area of the building was also remediated.

“As a matter of protocol, in these instances, the source of water incursion is identified, addressed to prevent further incursion, and tiles are replaced where appropriate,” he said.

Back in September, Scarice told families about the mold and how the district planned to address it.

“According to the CDC, Aspergillus/Penicillium is a common mold that lives indoors and outdoors, and since most people breathe in fungal spores every day, ‘It’s probably impossible to completely avoid breathing in some Aspergillus spores. For people with healthy immune systems, breathing in Aspergillus isn’t harmful,’” Scarice wrote back then and reiterated in his message Wednesday.

He said this doesn’t “minimize any compromises in indoor air quality,” going on to recognize it could lead to health problems for people with mold allergies. He said the district follows the Environmental Protection Agency protocols for any mold found and addresses it immediately, as well as identifies the cause to prevent it from happening again.

“We remediate where necessary using proper containment procedures and negative air pressure, and then clean and retest before re-occupying the space,” Scarice said.

He said they also proactively try to prevent this from happening by using the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems and keeping moisture from getting in.

Scarice encouraged parents to read the reports in the meantime, adding any changes to the timeline or other updates will be sent to families.

“Thank you for your patience as we look to expedite this process so that a long-term strategy is deliberated publicly and decided in order to advance this work in a timely manner,” he said.

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Originally Appeared Here