As the de facto Facilities Manager, you’re likely very familiar with your school’s minor facility inconveniences. The girls’ bathroom lights always seem to flicker as if in a horror movie; the projectors show the blue screen of death anytime the chemistry teacher wants to show a video demonstration; and the school garden attracts unseemly quantities of Japanese beetles. There are bigger problems on your plate, so you typically wait to “get around to it later.”
Well, there’s one concern that if left untreated will become a big headache—fast. And that, dear readers, is mold.
Black mold can be a huge problem within buildings with poor air circulation. The bad ventilation can lead to a build up of moisture in walls and corners, creating the damp places where mold spores can land and colonize. Besides being unsightly, mold infestations can cause serious health problems for students, faculty, and staff alike.
Riverside Elementary School is one example in how bad mold infestations dramatically impact health. Fifteen years of ignoring the damp spots and mold problem led to mold-related health problems for at least 30% of attending students.
One eight year-old mentioned in the article had an allergic reaction so bad, he needed two surgeries, two CAT scans, and over 20 antibiotics and antihistamines—not to mention more than 70 allergy injections—during his two years at Riverside.
One administrator was forced into early retirement due to the vertigo caused by inhaling the mold spores. Talk about risk management!
Finally, after teacher-led expeditions into the ceilings to spot areas covered with mold, school administrators decided to spend a summer eradicating the mold infestation. Whole walls were ripped out and replaced, costing the school thousands of dollars in delayed maintenance costs.
Riverside isn’t the only school that’s had problems with mold, either.
- Another elementary school in Allentown, Pennsylvania, discovered it had mold growing in the carpets of sixteen classrooms, requiring an outside contractor to rip up, treat, and replace the afflicted areas before school resumed in the fall.
- Two schools in Virginia delayed repairs to faulty air conditioning systems, resulting in threatened closure from the health department due to the resulting mold problem. The mold grew so quickly, one administrator recounts stories of opening closed classrooms to find the room covered in the stuff. The lowest received to correct the problem was $4.34 million, leaving it in an unplanned financial bind due to delayed maintenance.
- Sutton High School experienced mold in classrooms after delayed construction left building space exposed to the elements. The unsafe environment caused the school year to be delayed by a week as they found clean spaces for classes to resume.
Taking all of these horror stories into account, it’s a good idea to spend some time this summer inspecting your school’s facilities for any traces of mold—and correcting the issue as soon as possible. Consider it your “risk management summer program.” The first thing to do is to be able to identify different types of mold for proper clean up and risk evaluation.
The mold you least want to see is black mold, or Stachybotrys chartarum. According to the WebMD, black mold grows only on wood, paper, and cotton, meaning that your school’s facilities—if damp—are the perfect growing ground. Mold of any sort can trigger severe allergic reactions and upper respiratory problems.
However, Dr. John Martyny told WebMD that many people suffering from mold complications are not diagnosed properly: “People have these symptoms, but they don’t realize they have a moisture and mold problem … If you get rid of the allergens—the mold—people get better, and they get better pretty fast.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Indoor Environments Division offers the following tips to ensure your buildings are free of mold—and stay that way.
- Fix leaky plumbing and leaks in the building envelope as soon as possible.
- Watch for condensation and wet spots. Fix source(s) of moisture problem(s) as soon as possible.
- Prevent moisture due to condensation by increasing surface temperature or reducing the moisture level in air (humidity). To increase surface temperature, insulate or increase air circulation. To reduce the moisture level in air, repair leaks, increase ventilation (if outside air is cold and dry), or dehumidify (if outdoor air is warm and humid).
- Keep heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) drip pans clean, flowing properly, and unobstructed.
- Vent moisture-generating appliances, such as dryers, to the outside where possible.
- Maintain low indoor humidity, below 60% relative humidity (RH), ideally 30-50%, if possible.
- Perform regular building/HVAC inspections and maintenance as scheduled.
- Clean and dry wet or damp spots within 48 hours.
- Don't let foundations stay wet. Provide drainage and slope the ground away from the foundation.
Maintenance and prevention is important, but sometimes you’ve already got a mold problem. Times like these, it’s eradication that’s first and foremost on your mind. Take Iolani School, a private-independent school in tropical (and humid) Honolulu, Hawaii. The building suffered from a recurring mold problem. Iolani’s director of finance, Glenn Ghing, said that “the buildings were designed [with sealed windows and a high percentage of recirculating air] for reasons of energy conservation. But as IAQ [Indoor Air Quality] experts now know, such designs can cause indoor air quality problems if remedial measures are not taken.”
So what did Iolani School do? Ultraviolet lights to physically “cook” the mold around the building’s air-handling system. While the lights will be replaced annually, they consider that a smaller price to pay than then $8,000 previously spent on coil cleanings.
The physical health and safety of all who teach and learn at your school is your top priority, as is balancing and maintaining your school’s fiscal health. Identifying and correcting concerns before they become just another horror story like the ones we’ve shared is one of the ways you can do so. Mold isn’t an inconvenience; it’s a serious issue that you must address while the building’s clear of people this summer.
Additional ISM resources:
ISM Research: Mold in My School: What Do I Do?
ISM Monthly Update for Risk Managers Vol. 2 No. 1 Mold Risks
Additional ISM resources for Gold Consortium members:
I&P Vol. 38 No. 16 Facilities: When You Run Out of Money
I&P Vol. 29 No. 2 Facilities and Faculty Retention
I&P Vol. 28 No. 14 A Maintenance Plan Extends the Useful Life of Facilities
