ALAMANCE COUNTY, N.C. — UPDATE: The Alamance-Burlington School System is delaying the start of the 2023-2024 school year for most schools until September 5, 2023, to allow more time to evaluate all school campuses after mold was discovered in more than a dozen buildings. The delay will not impact Alamance-Burlington Early College at ACC which has already started and is located on the community college campus.
Mold was found in at least a dozen Alamance-Burlington Schools after a visual inspection Monday, according to the school district.
School officials said official testing needs to be done, but they're seeing more signs of mold on some surfaces and walls.
Earlier this week, we learned mold was found at Cummings and Williams High Schools, Broadview Middle School, and Andrews and Newlin Elementary Schools.
The school district said they're still waiting for official air quality and lab results for Cummings High, Williams High, and Broadview Middle.
"This news comes at the worst possible time, just days ahead of students returning to classrooms across ABSS," said Superintendent Dr. Dain Butler. "However, the safety of our students and staff is our top priority. We must address these issues, understanding that some can be quick fixes while others will require more substantial time and resources to fully remediate."
The district has already spent more than a million dollars to address mold and HVAC issues at Newlin and Andrews Elementary.
County Commissioner Pamela Thompson said she's willing to do whatever it takes to come up with the funds to get schools in good condition.
"We can get all blown up about the cost it has to get done it's a priority it's at crisis level," Thompson said.
A crisis that will cost all students at Alamance Burlington schools a week of learning. school is pushed back to Sept. 5 for now.
ABSS public information officer Les Atkins said the school district and county leaders toured Williams High School Tuesday to see what the district is facing.
"To understand what it would take in terms of resources to do across the district remediations," Atkins said. "And see what county commissioners are willing to do because some of this would involve some HVAC repairs."
The district has $2.2 million left in funds to make repairs. It's up to county commissioners to approve any additional money.
"There's schools that have money left they didn't use from the bond where they came under budget and hopefully we can tap into that," Thompson said. "Whatever kind of way, the state may get to help us."
Thompson is also a former school board chair.
"Years ago when I was chair of the board of education I came before the board of commissions and invited them to look at the schools," Thompson said. "Sometimes the dam breaks. I think this is a blessing. When it's in the open it can get fixed."
According to the district in the past, they did not do yearly inspections.
Issues were only reported when administrators saw them.
As school board members In 2017, Thompson and Patsy Simpson toured Cummings High and Broadview Middle over mold and leaking roof concerns.
A report from the Alamance County Health Department from 2017 showed over 31 areas of water infiltration from roof leaks at Broadview and over 26 areas at Cummings. The health department noted then that this could allow mold to grow.
Thompson said at the time all the district could afford to do was put a band-aid on it.
"I have seen power struggles between the school board and commissioners they have to think about parks and rec, DSS, law enforcement we have an array of things we have to fund it's not just about the school system," Thompson said.
"Our superintendent was talking about this week some of these issues are new to his administration," Atkins said. "He's only been here a year he can't speak to how the prior administration handled that, but know going forward that we want to take care of this issue."
For the next week, inspectors will look at all schools.
Monday county and school district leaders will meet to discuss the next steps.
The district said online learning is an option on the table. As well as moving students into the newly built southeast Alamance High School.
“While frustrating, this presents an opportunity to make improvements that will benefit ABSS schools for years to come. We owe it to our community to provide safe and healthy learning environments for our students. That is our focus in the days ahead,” Butler added when speaking to the Commissioners today."
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