CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Capital High School in Charleston will be closed for the rest of the week due to mold removal.
MORE Capital High School air quality information
School officials announced Monday high levels of mold and CO2 were found in 60 out of Capital’s 188 classrooms, according to air quality test results.
Mold was first reported earlier this month in three classrooms.
During an air quality meeting at the school Monday, Principal Larry Bailey announced classes will be canceled through Friday, so crews can clean each classroom.
“When you have a school that’s 25,000 square feet — you have a large system, so you have the potential for a lot of problems. We’re still trying to diagnose and find all of our problems right now,” Bailey said.
The first testing was conducted Aug. 29 and Sept. 6-8. There were 148 samples collected. The results showed high levels of mold and CO2 were found in classrooms, the auditorium and the theater. The gymnasium was not affected.
“From my understanding — you compare the levels inside the classroom to levels outside on the same day,” Bailey explained. “Those numbers should be comparable. In our situation, the numbers inside the classrooms were elevated higher than they were outside.”
Bailey said the mold issue could be due to high humidity levels inside the building, but an exact cause of the problem is unknown at this time.
“We predict that it’s coming from the HVAC system and that’s something that we’re looking closely at — trying to make sure the entire system is functioning properly,” he said. “We’re still looking to try and identify the source.”
Stanley Mills, director of environmental services at the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, addressed health concerns at Monday’s meeting.
“It very well could affect people who have asthma and allergies, but for a normal, healthy person, there doesn’t seem to be any issues whatsoever,” Mills said.
Mills suggested contacting your family physician if you think you’ve been affected by the high levels of mold.
Clean up work will take place all week. Gregory Pauley, vice president of operations for ASTAR Abatement & Insulation, said the rooms will be vacuumed, wiped down and scrubbed to get as man mold spores out of the rooms as possible by the weekend.
“It is a very short time frame. We’re starting in the morning and we’ll probably be working around the clock until we get the rooms done and get them started testing,” Pauley said.
Crews plan on conducting another air quality test. Results are expected to be released by the end of the week.
Athletics and extra curricular activities will still take place, according to a message from Kanawha County Schools.
Bailey said the missed school days will not need to be made up at the end of the year because the closure is only isolated to Capital High School, not the entire Kanawha County School system.
The goal is to reopen the school by Monday.