Students at Jacksonville Elementary School will spend the rest of the week out of the classroom after mold was found inside the not-even-five-year-old building.
JACKSONVILLE, Ark. — Jacksonville Elementary School students will spend the rest of the week out of their classrooms after Leaders of the Jacksonville North Pulaski School District found mold inside the school.
According to officials, Jacksonville Elementary School will be closed for five days, from Wednesday, August 19 through Sunday, August 23.
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The decision comes after environmental testing revealed elevated mold levels in multiple areas of the school.
After additional walk-throughs, specialists with Metro Cleaning told leaders that the entire Jacksonville Elementary building should be professionally cleaned.
Parents are now left with questions about how the mold got into the school and if the school will be safe when students return.
The school opened just five years ago, and with students who just started the school year last week, parents are also concerned about the rest of the school year and the plan going forward.
“What happens after Monday? Mold is very dangerous as well. Is it really going to take five days?” Kiya Lewis, a parent of a student at the school, said.
Around 3:00 p.m. Tuesday, parents received a notification from the Jacksonville North Pulaski School District informing them about the mold and air quality concern.
For some families, that means finding last-minute childcare or deciding whether to send their child to the high school where the elementary school students will be separated.
“What’s next for childcare? Because they say high school is an option, but what if you don’t want your child to go to the high school? What’s next for childcare? That’s a whole different environment for someone,” Lewis said.
Lewis’s daughter is in third grade at the elementary school; she’s been attending since she started kindergarten. Now Lewis is asking: could students have been exposed before the mold was found?
“We caught it today, but when did it really start? Did someone actually walk through a couple years ago and do their job correctly?” Lewis said.
With the school district coming back from summer break just last week, Lewis is also questioning the rest of the year and why the mold was not found over the summer.
“Will it be fixed? It’s mold. Will it come back? Will it be handled correctly? It’s all kind of what-ifs now. School is supposed to be a safe environment for our children, and that’s a little. That’s very concerning,” Lewis said.
Nancy Sims is a grandma of a student at Jacksonville Elementary; she too is worried about health impacts for those who learn and work in the building.
“The mold is very concerning for everybody, for the kids, for the staff, for the teachers,” Sims said.
And like Lewis, Sims is also frustrated about what she called the lack of readiness for the school year.
“I want to know what their plans are for the future, and why they haven’t done something about it already. Are they going to check the other schools?” Sims said.
The district has said students could return to Jacksonville Elementary as early as Monday, depending on the results of the cleaning and air-quality work. Parents say they’ll be looking for answers — and reassurance — before sending their children back.