Parents, district speak on mold at school

VERO BEACH — Even though a local school received a deep cleaning and inspection for surface mold over the weekend, some parents are upset because they were notified too late of the issue.

On Aug. 11, the School District of Indian River County sent out a news release notifying parents of surface mold found in some classrooms at Osceola Magnet School in Vero Beach. Two professional mold remediation companies did a deep cleaning and inspection of the 600, 700 and 800 wings at the school, 1110 18th Ave. S.W.

Details on when the results of the inspection will come back were not available.

Parent Stephanie Letts, 31, of Vero Beach, said the school district sent the release about 5 p.m. She said by that time, it was too late to contact anyone to get more information on the mold issue.

“It was a slap in the face to many parents,” said Letts, who has a 10-year-old 5th grader at the school. “We have lost trust with the school board district.”

School opened as normal for the first week with an early release time of 1:40 p.m. set for Monday through Friday, officials said. The school has about 530 students, from kindergarten through 5th grade.

Letts is a volunteer parent at the school. She said she has received numerous phone calls from other parents, with some saying they didn’t tell their children about the mold issue because they didn’t want them to have extra stress on the first day of school.

Still, Letts brought her 10-year-old son to school and said less than half of the students in her son’s class showed up.

This past weekend, the mold remediation companies did air quality tests for the 600, 700 and 800 wings. The school district should have the final test results for the 600 wing Wednesday and for the 700 and 800 wings on Friday, said district spokeswoman Cristen McMillan.

The school has one chiller and separate fans for each wing, McMillan said.

facebook twitter pinterest linkedin