LANCASTER — For the third time this month, the start of the year for another Central Pennsylvania school has been delayed by the discovery of mold in a school building.
Mold was found in several areas at Brownstown Elementary School, part of the Conestoga Valley School District in Lancaster County. As a result, the start of the school year at Brownstown was pushed back from August 21 to August 23 so that cleanup can be completed, the school district said in a press release.
Brownstown Elementary is the second CV elementary school to discover a mold problem this month. Smoketown Elementary School, which is also part of the CV School District, also had the start of its school year pushed back to August 23 because of mold.
Also this month, the Eastern York School District pushed back the start of its school year after mold was found in its middle school.
In both cases, the school district said, mold was found around the piping and underneath several desks inside the buildings. The district believes the mold is occurring in these two buildings because they both use an antiquated, two-pipe HVAC systems that struggled to keep up with the summer’s record-setting humidity and rain. The two affected buildings are the only ones in the district that still use this type of HVAC system, the district said.
Mold has not been found in any of the other buildings in the district, CV officials said.
The two school buildings are being cleaned and evaluated, and the delay in the start of the school year at both locations is being done “in an abundance of caution,” the district said in its announcement.
“We understand that last-minute schedule changes are not easy, but out of an abundance of caution we wanted to give the workers and staff two extra days to test the rooms and ensure the building is safe before we welcome Brownstown students back,” said Dr. Dave Zuilkoski, CV Superintendent.
