The threat of mold in the more than 50-year-old Smithville Elementary School building has motivated the school system to bring an environmental consultant in to evaluate the situation.
At last week’s school board meeting, held in the library at SES, Director of Schools Mark Willoughby told the board that an air quality monitoring company has recently inspected the structure.
While recommendations included a cleaning of air vents and additional insulation in some areas, Willoughby said the Nashville-based firm pronounced the suspected areas on the floor of some first-grade classrooms mold free.
“Personally, I was pleased with some of the recommendations that he gave us,” Willoughby said.
“One of the recommendations was basically to clean the air vents. He recommended that they be cleaned every 10-15 years. We're already in the process of making contacts with contractors in order to come in and do that.
“There's another area that needs some insulation,” the director continued. “That same contractor is going to come in and do the duct work. We were told that these contractors will come in and do the insulation and that would help cut down on condensation in some areas.”
Willoughby happily reported that the black substance that some feared to be mold is now thought to be glue from the floor installation seeping through the cracks between tiles.
“One of the things we thought that could be a concern was things on the floor in the first-grade area,” said Willoughby. “We asked the environmentalist for his recommendation about that. He said that wasn't - well, I’m just going to go ahead and use the word  mold - he said that it wasn’t mold on those floors we were concerned about. But we're going to have some people go in and strip those floors down and put down two or three coats of wax. Years ago, they used to put the floors down with some kind of black glue and that this black glue is part of what is coming up between those tiles.”
The director also took the opportunity to praise the system’s maintenance department for diligently keeping the facility’s air conditioners clean.
“One of the things the environmentalist did was remove the air conditioner covers on the outside of the building and it looked brand new in there. It did not look like it was old at all,” Willoughby said. “It was very clean. He complimented our maintenance department for keeping their filters and everything changed so that was a big plus.”
Willoughby assured the board that the problems at the school could be easily taken care of.
“I was pretty pleased because it appeared, from what he said, to be an easy fix with some of the concerns we had,” the director said. “We're making contacts with contractors, trying to get them in there this week. After we do that, we'll ask him to come back and look it over to see if there are other concerns that he might have. He recommended coming up with some kind of policy and we will follow his lead on that to do what is best for this building and to assure people that we've got a good building for students to come into,” he concluded.
The board also voted to increase the price of school lunches by 10 cents for the second consecutive year, going from $1.35 to $1.45 for pre-k to fifth grade, and from $1.60 to $1.70 for sixth through 12th grade.
Breakfast prices should remain the same price, $1 for all students.
School Nutrition Supervisor Stephanie Walker told the board that prices must be raised slightly every year per USDA regulations until they get to $2.51, or the school system could lose its increase in food reimbursement rates.
“There is a regulation stating that we have to go up 10 cents on our lunch prices every year until we get to $2.51,” Walker said. “I don't agree with this, but it is a regulation that has to be passed in order for us to be in compliance with the federal people. My proposal is to increase by 10 cents. If we are not within regulations for the coming school year, there is a possibility that we won't get our increase in reimbursement rates. We are asking for the minimum increase.”