YORK COUNTY -- West Shore School District officials sent a message to parents last night informing them that for the second day in a row students would be dismissing early due to high heat and humidity in the buildings. Many of those buildings lack an air conditioning system.
In addition to those challenges the district officials are also dealing with mold inside of Crossroads Middle School.
On Tuesday that mold was found inside of a storage closet located by the main gym, in the lower level of the building inside of a tech ed. classroom and in the locker room areas.
We are told a remediation company was called to inspect the affected areas and made the call to close Crossroads Middle School both today and tomorrow to give the school the time they need to conduct additional testing.
This comes at the same that the district decided to dismiss students at all of their schools because of high heat and humidity. Parents were informed last night that for the second day in a row students will be sent home early.
Secondary students willdismiss at 11:45 and elementary students will dismiss at 12:45. Kindergarten will be on a modified schedule.
The district says their decision to release students early was made after temperatures inside some of the buildings without air conditioning reached temperatures in the mid to high 80’s. They say their first move was to use fans but it was quote “simply not enough”.
Seven of the 14 schools in the district do not have air conditioning.
The district went on about both the heat and mold issues saying quote “As always, the safety of students and staff is our foremost concern" and that they hope “Everyone understands the process that they use to make the best possible decision for all children in the district.”
The district is expected to update parents by tomorrow night about the Crossroads Middle School building conditions.
WSSD also expects to run a regular school day on Thursday for all other schools. The dismissal protocol will be back in place again on Friday as planned for the Labor Day holiday.