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Report: Health Risk Unlikely at Taft
School
By Andrea Hein
Staff Writer
(Nov.
21, 2002) Lockport � The Taft School Board tackled a broad range of
issues Wednesday night including a study on mold in the school, finances
and how a petitioner was left off the agenda.
The school hired a firm
in October to study whether mold, or some other type of allergen, was
present in two classrooms.
Parents and teachers
attending the meeting and school board members commented that there
 appeared
to be a brown substance growing on one of the walls.
The consultant who
checked out the rooms reported that the substance didn't show any health
risk.
Mike Fiore, an
industrial hygiene and safety associate, conducted several tests related
to air quality and the presence of mold.
He explained that mold
can't "reach out and grab someone," and its danger comes when spores are
released into the air. The spores make people sick.
Fiore wants to return
to retest the rooms now that the heat is on. Heat, especially when it's
steam-based as in Taft's case, can cause spores to release.
"Mold is a very strange
thing," he said.
Several people voiced
there opinions that they also want him to check out the gym, and they were
upset he wasn't directed to do so in the first place.
And that suspicious
brown spot? Fiore didn't see any signs of mold on the wall.
The school custodian
cleaned that spot before Fiore came. Fiore indicated that if there had
been a heavy concentration of mold, the spores probably still would have
shown up in the air tests.
School board member
Susan Taylor was upset the spot was cleaned before Fiore came. She
questioned why money was spent on the consultation if the mold had been
wiped away.
Fiore said that if he
had walked into a classroom and saw mold, he wouldn't have conducted a
particular test for it.
Besides discussing
mold, some board members questioned the district's finances.
Taylor said that the
board approved money to be taken out of the operation and maintenance
fund, but instead, through changing journal entries, it was taken out of
the education fund.
She even called the
school's auditors and confirmed that the school board must be notified of
such action.
Superintendent Joseph
Bailey said he wasn't aware that such action was necessary.
Another board member
Neil Kijek stated that the school seems to be over budget on certain line
items � some by 200 percent.
Bailey said that some
line items will go over and others will have to go under. He said a budget
is a best guess.
"We are going to
under spend in some places and overspend in other areas, and it all
balances out," he said.
Board President Darrell Tielbur stated he was still worried by where the under spending would come
in.
"The concern I have is
where are we going to under?" Tielbur said.
There was also some
controversy as to why a petitioner was left out of the meeting's agenda.
Lisa Lovelace said she wrote a letter to the board and superintendent
petitioning to be put on the agenda.
Tielbur's first action
of the night was to amend the agenda to add Lovelace.
"She notified us well
in advance," Tielbur said.
Lovelace's first move
was to find out why she was left off and why school board members never
received a copy of her letter.
Bailey stated he had a
phone conversation with her about her issues with the district, and
originally said he thought the letter was addressed just to him. Lovelace
rebutted and asked Bailey where the letter was.
"I can't tell you what
happened to the letter," he said.
Tielbur said he would look into it.
Source: Suburban Chicago News www.suburbanchicagonews.com
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