Mold discovered this summer at Seth Paine Elementary School in Lake Zurich won’t affect the start of the school year, officials said Friday.
Work already is under way to remove the potentially dangerous material, Lake Zurich District 95 Superintendent Michael J. Egan wrote in a letter appearing on the Seth Paine website.
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Demolition under way at former May Whitney school in Lake Zurich May Whitney demolition set Students, teachers say farewell to old May Whitney schoolThe building will be cleaned and vacuumed with special filters before it reopens to students and staffers, the letter reads. The work should be done Aug. 5, District 95 spokeswoman Jean Malek said in an email.
Classes at Seth Paine are set to begin Aug. 24 with a half-day program. The first full day is scheduled for Aug. 25.
A “meet the principal” event planned for mid-August will be held, too.
Seth Paine Elementary is the second Lake Zurich School District 95 facility to have mold problems in recent years. The former May Whitney Elementary School was closed in August 2007 after mold and asbestos were found in the building after flooding.
Despite efforts, district officials were unable to prevent water from entering that building during floods, Malek said.
Students were moved to a building then called the Annex, a separate facility connected to May Whitney. The Annex now is known as May Whitney Elementary.
Construction crews demolished the old Whitney building this month.
At Seth Paine, the mold was discovered this summer during construction projects. It was found above ceilings on the paper coating of roof decking material, Egan wrote.
Subsequent thermal scans showed the roof itself is dry. Officials believe the mold was caused by an old, now-inactive water leak.
That’s different from the problem at May Whitney.
“The mold that was found in the now-demolished May Whitney building several years ago was caused by water intrusion via flooding. The mold at Seth Paine appears to be caused by water intrusion from previous roof leaks or from condensation,” Malek said.
As part of the mold remediation work at Seth Paine, the ceilings will be replaced with a different material, Egan said in his letter.
Partial ceiling replacement already was planned for this summer, he said. Now all of it will be done.
The entire project is expected to cost about $289,700, Malek said.
