MEXICO, Maine — Mold is forcing students and teachers at Mountain Valley Middle School in the town of Mexico out of their classrooms.
RSU 10 announced late Tuesday that Mountain Valley Middle School would be closed until further notice in an effort to take necessary health and safety precautions after air quality testing revealed widespread mold throughout the school.
In the letter to parents, Superintendent Deb Alden shared that in-person classes for students would be cancelled for the rest of the week and students would begin remote learning on Oct. 15.
"It's not ideal to have remote learning," Alden said in an interview with NEWS CENTER Maine.
Alden said during COVID, educators quickly learned that virtual learning has several disadvantages, but for the time being, virtual learning is the best option.
The Mountain Valley Middle School building was built in 1967, Alden explained. She explained the old building has some wood structures throughout.
Over there years, the building has had some leaks and excess moisture that caused the development of mold spores.
"The bottom line is the whole school envelope is compromised," Alden said.
Alden shared that the district started to receive odor complaints last school year, which prompted them to contract with Sevee & Maher to complete indoor air quality testing.
Indoor air quality testing was completed in June, August, and September. Alden said areas that presented mold in June were treated. When testing was completed in August, areas that were previously treated seemed to be improving, but other moldy areas were discovered.
She explained that testing from August showed that previously treated areas were re-affected, and the mold was continuing to spread.
Results from the testing revealed that more than one dozen different mold generas were found throughout the school—making it unsafe for student learning.
The full study may be viewed below.
Dr. Dora Mills from MaineHealth said the mold isn't toxic, but exposure to mold can make people feel sick.
"It can cause allergy like symptoms. Cough, runny nose... sometimes even pneumonia," Mills said.
Mills shared that symptoms often alleviate once a person removes themselves from the moldy area.
Alden was forthcoming, sharing that some parents and even staff have gotten pneumonia that was possibly caused by the exposure to mold in the school.
Parent Shannon White said her 10-year-old daughter, who is more susceptible to respiratory infections due to a rare heart and lung disease, is just one student whose health was impacted.
"When she would get home or out and about 30 minutes after, the symptoms would subside," White said. "She would stop coughing as much the headaches would go away, but every time she was in that school... every time I would pick her up, you could tell she was struggling."
White shared that over time, her daughter's symptoms seemed to become more severe, causing her to develop pneumonia.
"Everything that she's experienced in the past couple of weeks, the throwing up, the coughing, the headaches was due to the bacteria from the mold at the school," White said, explaining that she spent hours Wednesday consulting with her daughter's lung specialist.
Being that White's daughter's health is already impaired due to her lung and heart disease, White said she does her best to pay close attention to her child's health.
"I should feel when I drop my kid off at school that it's going to be safe, and I don't feel like that was provided," White said.
White shared that she does not feel like school leaders were as transparent as they should have been about how serious the school's issues were.
She shared that she has not seen any of the air quality testing reports, and she explained that she feels detailed information about the air quality should have been shared while testing was being completed.
Alden said the concerns for student and staff health was one of the main reasons she and others decided to close the school and utilize virtual learning.
"We don't want people to be sick," Alden said.
To fully eliminate the widespread mold, the entire school would have to be gutted, Alden explained.
"It doesn't make sense because if you look over there right in back, you'll see that a new school is being built," Alden said.
Mitigating the mold issue would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the building would not be usable for nine months to one year.
Alden explained that with the new school set to be complete Dec. 1, 2025, spending the time and the money to eliminate the mold in the middle school would be a waste.
Once the new construction is finished, Mountain Valley Middle School's current building will be torn down, she explained.
The new building will combine Mount Valley Middle School with two elementary schools in the district.
Alden said the district is currently looking for multiple locations that can immediately support in-person student learning, even if that means placing students in various locations by grade. The middle school has some 370 students to create in-person learning spaces for.
Middle students can pick up their belongings from the school Friday, October 11.