Bells Mill Classrooms Closed After Reports of Mold, Illness

Montgomery County's school district has closed two portable classrooms at Bells Mill Elementary School and promised to replace them this summer after teachers and parents complained that mold was making people sick.

A third portable at the school also has been closed temporarily to make repairs because of concerns about water contamination and mold, Montgomery public schools spokesman Brian Edwards said.

After receiving 12 complaints since the beginning of the school year, officials decided Friday to move the 70 students who were taking classes in the three portables, increasing crowding at the Potomac school, Edwards said.

"It really affects the whole community, not just the kids in the classroom," said Marion Cantor, who has two sons in the school, including a fifth-grader who was moved.

"The children and teachers that have been affected have had eye irritations, rashes, sinus issues and respiratory issues. His teacher has been sick on and off for several months. It's stressful," Cantor said.

Molds release spores that can trigger allergic reactions when people breathe or ingest them. Common symptoms include coughing, congestion and scratchy eyes. But some molds create spores that can be dangerous for people who are sensitive to them or who are exposed to large amounts.

To make room for the students from the portables, school officials have moved one fourth-grade class into an art room, another fourth-grade class into a classroom that had been used for a second-grade reading program and a fifth-grade class into a portable that had been used for music classes, Edwards said.

The head of the school's PTSA welcomed the step but said more needs to be done.

"I am relieved that children won't be suffering allergic reactions, but I remain concerned about the portables," Richard M. Rosenthal, president of the Bells Mill PTSA, said yesterday. "We'd like to replace all the portables."

Many school districts in the Washington region have struggled over the years with classrooms contaminated with mold. The experience at Bells Mill underscores the Montgomery district's complicated efforts to reduce class sizes, offer full-day kindergarten, deal with rising attendance rolls and meet a budget.

For example, the school district's proposed budget for 2006-07 included plans to expand its full-day kindergarten program to 17 more schools next year.

The Board of Education voted Feb. 14 to accelerate the expansion of all-day kindergarten to an additional 13 schools next year that would otherwise not have had full-day kindergarten until 2008, Edwards said.

Within such a context, using portables is the only realistic solution, Edwards said.

"There's nothing wrong with going to school in a portable," he said.

Bells Mill accounts for eight of the 719 modular classrooms that Montgomery uses to accommodate about 15,000 students, Edwards said. Each new modular classroom costs about $50,000, he said.

Edwards said the two portables at Bells Mill that were permanently closed had been moved there from another school. But he said he didn't know if there had been mold complaints at the other school.

At Bells Mill, complaints about crowding and the conditions in the portables have persisted for some time, said Rosenthal, the Bells Mill PTSA president.