The YK1 school board has confirmed that mould was found inside of William McDonald Middle School.
The mould inside the school accumulated due to leaking in one part of the roof which was caused by both heavy amounts of snow this winter and the school’s ageing infrastructure.
YK1 superintendent Metro Huculak said that last Thursday, the school board learned that mould was discovered in two areas of the school; an unused classroom and the outside wall surrounding the classroom. Both areas will be sealed off until mould cleanup which will occur during spring break.
“The classroom wasn’t being used and will be closed off, the outside wall in the hallway will have to be tarped off, and we’ll have to remove lockers from the hallway as the area will be remediated.”
An assessment was commissioned after dark spots were found behind a cabinet in a classroom at the school late last year.
“We didn’t know how bad it was until we moved the cabinets out from the classroom. Some testing was then done last fall for the roof and we finally got the results last Thursday.”
Huculak insists that there are no health hazards to students or staff members.
“The Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission came in to check and there is no issue or harm to students, staff or visitors. The spores are on the drywall so unless you are inhaling the mould everyone will be fine.”
He added that frequent air testing will be done as well as some additional repair to the roof.
“The roof has to be repaired this summer, we’re going to have a contractor come in and remove the snow off of that part of the roof so that no more water comes in.”
The cleanup of the mould is scheduled for spring break, which goes from March 15th to March 31st.
