UPDATE: Mold Remediation Required, Delays School Opening for Some Students

Carole Jablonsky-Akgun is concerned about her 4-year-old daughter.

After learning several students will start school at the Primary Learning Center after mold was located at the township’s Educational Enrichment Center last week, she said she started thinking of her daughter's recent problems with sinusitis.

Her daughter has been enrolled at a summer program this year at the EEC, and she's worried that her sinus problems could have been related to the mold.

Tests of the school uncovered the fungus, and remediation is required, according to Superintendent Walter Uszenski.

Instead of opening Wednesday, officials decided to open school on Monday for those students, according to a meeting hosted this evening at the Veteran's Memorial Middle School by Uszenski and other school officials.

Uszenski said that although cleanup efforts have already begun - and testing has shown that the mold is nontoxic - he said the district made a decision to move about 150 students for the entire school year, because "I will not put any children or staff in harm's way."

Uszenski said although the mold is nontoxic, he said for children who have asthma or respiratory problems, "it is not healthy to breathe in."

That is what has parents like Jablonsky concerned. She said she plans to follow up with Uszenski to determine exactly what type of mold is in the building and how long it has been there, to determine if it could possibly related to her daughter's sinusitis.

Uszenski, meanwhile, said school officials are working to determine where the mold  - which has actually spread to the technology department, adjacent to the EEC building, is coming from.