MAPLEWOOD, Mo. — Students and staff at Maplewood-Richmond Heights Elementary School are back to school in-person on Wednesday.
This comes after air quality testing earlier this week revealed acceptable levels of mold spores inside the school. It’s the result of a water pipe that burst on Christmas Day.
The water pipe burst inside the building during that bitter cold streak in late December, causing damage to several classrooms and offices. After repairs were made, air quality tests found unhealthy levels of mold in certain areas of the building. That caused school officials to again delay in-person classes and go remote this past Monday and Tuesday.
More air quality tests were carried out, with eleven samples taken from classrooms on both floors, offices, the cafeteria, and the gymnasium. A sample was also taken from outside the building. Those new tests revealed levels were well within the range to safely occupy the building.
District officials say the facilities team will install ionizers in the HVAC system and conduct additional air quality tests throughout the year. The Maplewood-Richmond Heights Board of Education will receive a full briefing of the report by the environmental contractor at the Jan. 19 school board meeting.