Barack Obama Elementary School in Richmond, Virginia, will remain closed for an undetermined period due to significant mold concerns within the building, according to WRIC ABC 8News.
Richmond Public Schools (RPS) Chief Operations Officer Patrick Herrel instructed individuals to vacate the premises on Monday, announcing the school’s closure, as confirmed by several people present that day, including parents. They noted the presence of mold, including on laptops that had been stored in the building over the summer.
“We are providing updates twice daily via ParentSquare and the Barack Obama Elementary School website,” an RPS spokesperson stated on Tuesday. “Updates can be found here.”
RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras conveyed in a statement on Monday that teachers and staff had uncovered more areas of mold growth, particularly “behind bulletin board paper.”
“Out of an abundance of caution, we decided to send everyone home so we could thoroughly re-clean the newly identified areas and perform additional antimicrobial fogging,” Kamras remarked. “Following that, we plan to retest every single room in the school.”
“Honestly, this process will take several days,” he added. “So we won’t be returning to the Obama building this week. Our aim is to do so by Monday. In the meantime, we are preparing Clark Springs Elementary School as a temporary location and will have more information on that soon. School will be closed on Tuesday.”
Kamras also mentioned in a town hall meeting on Monday that students and staff might be relocated to Clark Springs for the first quarter of the school year. “I think it would be a lot to ask the team at Obama to pack everything up, set up classes at Clark Springs, only to return to Obama two weeks later,” he shared during the meeting.
Richmond City School Board member Ali Faruk told CBS 6 that the elementary school has been dealing with an improperly functioning HVAC system. “This summer has been wetter and hotter than usual, combined with an HVAC system that wasn’t working correctly,” Faruk explained. “Unfortunately, all of these factors converged to create a perfect environment for mold in a building that has already had issues.”
