Collins School Mold Clean Up Costs Hit $700,000

The Barnegat Board of Education passed a resolution at its December meeting Tuesday night authorizing an additional $200,000 from the district’s maintenance reserve to pay for the cost of mold removal and repairs at Cecil S. Collins Elementary. Officials said the further expense comes on top of $500,000 already withdrawn from the fund to pay for the mold remediation.

The school was closed after officials , just before school was scheduled to start. The 300-plus students and their teachers were distributed among the district’s three other elementary schools and middle school.

Collins was , superintendent Karen Wood said, and classes are expected to resume there some time after the winter recess. The district had been unable to offer an expected total cost of the clean up and and extensive remodeling required in its wake, but a previous estimate put expected costs at $270,000.

District business administrator Dean Allison reiterated Tuesday the maintenance reserve fund that paid for the mold remediation was established by the board over several years of careful saving, and existed for emergency situations such as the one the district faced in cleaning up the elementary school this year. Over the last three years, the board has put $900,000 in unexpected savings into the fund, he said. 

Allison explained that the money stashed away in recent years came from savings overages. For instance, he said, the district had expected to save $400,000 with its energy savings program, but saw a savings of closer to $600,000. The unexpected windfall went into the emergency fund – thankfully, he said.

Three years ago, the fund totaled $18,000, Allison said. “If that had been the case when this happened, we would have been in big trouble,” he said. Since then, the district put $900,000 in unexpected savings into the fund.

The mold cleanup at the Collins School has used up much of that money, he acknowledged, and there will need to be a renewed focus on replenishing it.