LOWELL — No less than three municipal bodies, one state agency, parents and staff and one labor union have all had a say in the ongoing mold issues at the Pawtucketville Memorial Elementary School.
Like the parable of the blind men and an elephant, in which each man touched a different part of the animal and described that specific area as the complete picture, each entity has come up with its own explanations for the persistent mold growth that has caused school closures and negatively impacted the learning environment.
An indoor air quality assessment prepared by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health cited HVAC control systems that had been offline due to a cyber-attack last spring. Department of Public Works staff identified a leaky gym roof as a source. City councilors and the union claimed neglected infrastructure as the cause.
School Facilities Manager Rick Underwood told the School Committee during its Feb. 7 meeting that the bigger picture is coming into focus as the investigation targets and corrects multiple mechanical, structural and environmental problems in hopes of rectifying the issue.
“There are no real answers to identify the exact problems over there,” he said. “But I think we’re on the right track. We’ve done a lot of repairs on the building.”
The school, located at 425 Meadow Road, did not welcome students back on Lowell Public Schools’ Aug. 29 opening day due to widespread mold issues. Efforts to mitigate ongoing mold growth were unsuccessful.
PMES also experienced pervasive mold growth in 2021, and the district spent $152,000 to clean up water and mold created by an HVAC issue that caused severe sweating on all the hard surfaces.
The cost to bring in an outside company for both incidents cost almost $300,000.
Repairs to faulty mechanical systems, which were identified as the primary problem behind the mold, are underway said Commissioner of Public Works Paul St. Cyr.
“Across the entire district, we’ve upgraded the controls – the whole front-end side and the platform that we’re using in all of the buildings,” he told the committee.
Those repairs and updates should facilitate air exchange and lead to better overall air quality in the building.
The district has 15,000 students spread across 28 schools comprising 3 million square feet of space. The city has 13 skilled trades staff within the Lands and Building Division responding to work orders in that territory.
“It’s a lot to cover,” St. Cyr said. “Our priority is safety all the time…There’s always going to be something to go in and repair.”
Both the School Committee and the City Council are responsible for school buildings. The school district uses the buildings, but almost all are owned by the city. The district is responsible for custodial services, like cleaning, while the city is responsible for repairs.
The Pawtucketville Memorial School was designed and built as a single-story structure in the late 1960s. Significant renovations were undertaken in the late 1990s, and an addition to the school was constructed about 20 years ago adding a second story and a gymnasium to its footprint.
Since that time, the school has experienced ongoing problems with water leaks and infiltration, which School Committee member Connie Martin said she had been hearing about for the years she’d been on the committee.
“I’ve been here for 20 years hearing about Pawtucketville Memorial School and the problems that they’ve had since they opened,” she said at the committee’s Nov. 15 meeting. “I have been told more times that I can count that the problem has been solved.”
St. Cyr confirmed her impression noting that the gym roof is on the list for capital improvements.
“After the renovation that went on and after it reopened they started having some issues with the leaks in the gym,” he said.
He also told the committee that a new chiller, a unit that maintains the temperature in a facility at a constant level, has been ordered and its expected arrival is the toward the end of summer.
“When we have the chiller in place, we will be able to evaporate the moisture in the air that they’re experiencing, that’s the overwhelming need,” he said. “It will help with the high humidity, too.”
There are no recommendations for a certain level of mold spores in a school, but the Mass MPH report found high levels of mold spores in several classroom areas.
The report also identified exterior drainage issues such as broken, missing or damaged downspouts at or near the building’s foundation; missing or worn weather-stripping on exterior doors; bird nesting materials in air vents; and vegetation such as untrimmed trees overhanging the roof and plants in contact with and near the foundation that contributed to a moisture-rich environment that encouraged mold growth.
St Cyr said once the mechanical systems were 100% corrected and tuned, other problem areas could be isolated and identified.
Opening day for the 2024-2025 school year is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, Aug, 29.