Mold Prompts Closure Of School Library, Again

CHATHAM – The library at Monomoy Regional Middle School was closed to students this week while officials investigate elevated levels of mold in the air.

 According to a letter sent to parents and staff at the school, a contractor sampled indoor air quality in 23 rooms at the middle school on Jan. 28, and results came back last Friday showing elevated levels in three rooms: the small gymnasium, the art classroom and the library.

 “However, the middle school library sample came back substantially higher than any other and any previous recorded at the middle school,” Superintendent of Schools Scott Carpenter wrote. “Out of an abundance of caution, we have closed the library this week while we further investigate this finding.”

 School officials will be installing additional air purifiers in the library and will intensively clean each of the three rooms over the February vacation week, Carpenter said.

 “We will retest these three spaces after remediation and will not reopen the library until testing results reflect normal levels,” he said.

Late last year, a water leak in the school library caused some books to become visibly moldy, prompting the school to temporarily close the room for cleaning and repairs.

 As part of the comprehensive air quality survey of the school, officials measured air quality in nine other public buildings in Chatham and Harwich to serve as a control group; those buildings included the district’s other schools, town offices, community centers and libraries. Dennis-based contractor Target Inspections determined that none of those buildings had elevated mold levels in the air.

 “Remediation is only recommended when indoor air quality samples have individual spore counts both above external ambient levels and above the recommended action level of 1,000 spores per cubic meter of air,” the contractor’s report reads. “If these criteria have not been met, then no remediation is required.”

 The spore counts generally ranged between about 100 and around 700 for most samples, but the middle school’s small gymnasium — known as the “slim gym” — had a count of 1,962. The count in the library was 6,420 spores per cubic meter.

 Carpenter said stachybotrys, the mold type considered most worrisome for indoor air quality, was not detected in any of the samples.

 In addition to the cleaning and followup testing, Carpenter said the middle school renovation committee and its consultants are planning to do further testing within the wall cavities throughout the middle school over school vacation week. The test results from this round of testing, and all previous tests, are posted on the school’s website.