ALAMANCE COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — On Thursday, the Alamance-Burlington School System learned about mold in nearly 30 schools.
School officials have until next Monday to clean them all out.
Thursday night, during a county commissioner meeting they were granted more money that will be used towards cleaning efforts.
Ben Bass, a spokesperson for Builders Services of North Carolina, was hired by the school district to clean out mold in nearly 30 school buildings district-wide.
Bass says 16 of them have toxigenic mold, so 2,000 workers have been brought in to go room by room to clean and throw out furniture.
“These schools are losing every chalkboard, every dry-erase board. They are all going to the landfill. They can not be remediated,” Bass said.
Outside Cummings High School, classroom items are sitting on the ground waiting to be taken to the dump.
County commissioners approved the reallocation of $3.9 million of funding to support ongoing mold remediation.
According to ABSS Spokesperson Les Atkins, this means other district projects will have to wait.
“Some of the money was marked for the Southern Alamance High School roof. They allowed us to use that money for mold remediation, and we took money from unused bond funds from our 2018 bonds and put it back on the roof project,” Atkins said. “So we’re just shifting pots of money from one pot to another.”
SAHS also hasn’t been tested for mold yet and has several remediation projects continuing.
“Virtual learning is not an option. We are on track to open school with students face-to-face with teachers Monday, Sept. 11,” Atkins said.
As to how they plan on paying to replace all the moldy furniture that was tossed out, Atkins says they’ll have another meeting with county commissioners at a later date.
