Eight schools are working to remove
the mold before
school starts.
After weeks of warm, wet, humid weather, area schools are scrambling to clean up carpets and clear out mold.
So far, four schools in Auburn, two elementary schools in Lewiston, an elementary school in Leeds and an elementary school in Wales have been affected.
The Division of Safety and Environmental Services, a state agency that advises public schools on indoor air quality, received eight calls from school systems throughout Maine that are looking for help removing mold.
The division usually receives just one or two calls this time of year.
For most schools, the problem started a couple of weeks ago when workers shampooed carpets during a span of warm, wet weather. The carpets never dried completely and began to mildew in the humidity.
Auburn officials discovered their mold last week.
Edward Little High School has mold in classroom and hallway carpets in its new wing. Auburn Middle School has mold in seventh-grade classrooms, hallways and auxiliary gym carpets and on bathroom walls. Lake Street Elementary School has mold on carpets in its basement classrooms. And Fairview Elementary School has mold on carpets in its primary wing.
Because some of Fairview’s carpets are new and have rubber backing that prevents water from seeping through, the flooring is being cleaned and disinfected. The rest of Auburn’s carpets are being ripped up and replaced.
Officials are not yet sure how much it will cost.
“We’re still assessing that,” said Business Manager Jude Cyr.
In Union 44, workers have been removing carpets from several Wales Central School’s classrooms after discovering mold there. In SAD 52, workers have recleaned carpets at Leeds Central School after discovering a couple of spots of mildew.
In Lewiston, workers routinely use a sanitizer to prevent carpet mold. But some minor spots of mold were found at Pettingill Elementary School, where a professional carpet cleaner didn’t use the solution, and at Montello Elementary School, where custodians ran out of it.
Carpets at both schools were cleaned and sanitized. Workers are now running tests to make sure air quality wasn’t affected.
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