HVAC Upgrades Will Keep Collins Mold-Free, Says District

A faulty heating, ventilation and air conditioning system that let in too much humidity was to blame for the mold problem that forced Cecil S. Collins Elementary to close for half the school year, contractors involved in the project told parents at a public meeting Wednesday night, but planned upgrades are expected to solve the problem.

Representatives from the companies hired to assess the mold problem, conduct the cleanup and seek long-term solutions to the underlying issue of poor humidity control in the school explained their roles.

The mold remediation process lasted four months and has so far cost the district about $700,000 – a number that will ultimately rise as the district makes further upgrades to the school.

Tim Popp of TTI Environmental and Mike Reilly of Servpro, in charge of removing mold from the building, gave a detailed account of their methods. Cleanup teams attacked one section of the school at a time, they said, using a HEPA-filter vacuum and disinfectant to clean every surface and object, right down to the books in the classrooms. Each room was tested for airborne mold spores before being declared clean, said Papp.

“This is probably the cleanest the building has been since it was constructed,” he said.

Steven Siegel of the district’s architectural firm, the Spiezle Group, said his company then examined the newly cleaned building for the root of the problem. What they found, he said, was a number of problems in the HVAC system of the 30-year-old school.

“Dampers were getting stuck in the open position, so when it was 90 percent humidity outside, it was just blowing in,” Siegel said. Some valves on rooftop condenser units also weren’t working with the rest of the system, he said. “There were a lot of these little things that we found that were damaged, or had gotten old over time and weren’t working properly,” he said.

The resulting high humidity allowed for the growth of mold, the experts said, though Servpro representative Mike Reilly pointed out that it wasn’t the kind known as “black mold” or “toxic mold.” Rather, he said, they found growth of Aspergillus and Penicillium molds – common species whose spores can be found just about anywhere. Still, he said, such molds can cause respiratory problems for people allergic to them.

Siegel said after making some adjustments and installing classroom humidistats – like thermostats, but designed to control humidity as opposed to temperature – his team got the current system working again. The entire school will have humidistats by the time students return from spring break, he said, when humidity starts becoming an issue.

But the school district plans to go further, and is soliciting bids for a new system that will include multiple rooftop units with alarms triggered by too-high humidity and infrared light in the ductwork to stem mold growth. In addition, the district is seeking bids for a reroofing project that will see the entire center section of the school’s water-damaged roof replaced.

“The unit vent recalibrations could be considered a permanent fix,” said superintendent Wood. “But the more permanent solution is above and beyond that.” 

Barnegat parent Chris Linton, whose daughter attends the school, said he was glad the district held a public meeting about the upgrades. He said he didn’t want to Monday morning quarterback the situation, but was left feeling that more could have been done to prevent the mold issue from occurring at all. 

As to whether the measures would permanently solve the problem, “the jury’s still out in my mind,” he said. “That we’re dropping over a million to rehabilitate the school – well, it is what it is.”