OTISFIELD — The Oxford Hills School District has received a $474,772 state grant to help pay for removing moisture and mold from the inside walls at the Otisfield Community School,  Facilities Director David Marshall said on Wednesday.

The remaining $456,000 of the $930,500 project will have to come from local sources, Marshall said. That portion will be budgeted into the 2012 fiscal year budget, which begins July 1, 2011. The money must be approved by town meeting voters in the eight district towns at their next annual town meeting.

The money will be used to tear out all the Sheetrock and insulation from the outer walls at the school. The damaged walls will be replaced with new walls and foam insulation.

“Foam insulation will be put in because that is not affected by mold,” Marshall said. Mold, he said, feeds on the paper backed insulation and just continues to grow.

Testing on a portion of the Sheetrock during the summer showed mold in the walls. Because the mold is safe if contained, officials decided to wait until funding was in place and staff and students were out of the building next summer to do the work.

The school, which was built in 1990 on Powhaten Road, houses 74 students in kindergarten through fourth grade, according to Oct. 1 enrollment figures.

The moisture problem was discovered earlier this year and school officials believe it was caused by a poor drainage system and blockage of “weep” holes near the base of the foundation by flower and vegetable beds surrounding the building. The beds were planted over the last five years by school children using donations from the private and business community. The beds were dug up and removed during the summer.

There is no danger to the students or staff at the school presently, Marshall said. Testing for mold is conducted three times a year and although the results of the latest test, which was done Tuesday, are not available, Marshall said all previous tests show there is the same amount of mold in the outside air as there is inside the classroom walls.

“There’s moisture there (in the walls). We know that if you have moisture you can have mold,” he said.

Marshall said the project will be put out to bid and a timetable set so that all the work will be done during the summer. The project will mean that all furniture and other items in the classrooms will have to be removed and placed in the central gymnasium. The outside masonry, which does not allow mold to grow, will remain in place during the project, he said.

School officials have been working with the state Bureau of General Services, which is a branch of Department of Administrative and Financial Services, which provides a broad range of services including safety and environmental assistance including indoors air quality assessment and mitigation.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

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