QUESTION: Are you aware there is still mold at Williams High School? Is it true that the roof continues to leak and the ceiling tiles droop with water, but instead of fixing the problem, the Alamance-Burlington school system’s operations department just replaces the tiles?
ANSWER: No. While suspected mold had been recently reported to the Alamance-Burlington school system administration, no mold has been confirmed at Williams High School or anywhere else within the school system, ABSS chief operations officer Greg Hook said this week in an interview with The Alamance News.
Third-party air quality testing has not been conducted since the “post-remediation verification” that followed the discovery and remediation of mold in 33 ABSS facilities during the late summer and early fall of 2023, Hook told the newspaper during a subsequent tour of Williams High School on Tuesday afternoon.
“Our maintenance team has worked on cleaning the affected areas, consisting of small isolated spaces in a hallway, female bathroom, and classrooms,” Hook said in reference to the report of suspected mold at Williams High School. “Because of our regular inspections, we are able to address and clean quickly before there is any mold growth or larger issues.
“Cleaning has included wiping and vacuuming surfaces, removing and replacing ceiling tiles, sealing and painting walls at the ground and ceiling level, removing carpet and furnishings as needed, and cleaning gutters to direct water away from the building,” Hook said this week.
The newspaper’s tour Tuesday afternoon revealed that, indeed, a number of acoustic ceiling tiles have been removed throughout Williams High School.
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However, Hook attributed the removal of ceiling tiles to 106 HVAC valves that need to be replaced, causing droplets of water to fall to the floor intermittently, though no pooling was visible. Those HVAC valves regulate the flow of chilled air that circulates throughout the three-story Williams High School, most of which dates back to 1949, Hook explained.
“These have already been purchased and we are waiting for the valves to arrive and be installed,” Hook said. “As part of the identification process, we know this is a source of leaks and are working to ensure that ceiling tiles are removed so moisture does not collect and mold is not able to grow on surfaces.”
“We are investigating the causes, which include factors such as water intrusion and HVAC issues,” he added.
In addition to regular inspections of facility conditions, Hook said that his department is continuously running dehumidifiers and HVAC systems, as well as leaving interior doors open to let air circulate throughout every ABSS school.
Installation of the new HVAC valves and other upgrades planned for Williams High School (such as additional chillers, air handlers, pumps, air piping, and window replacements) will be completed under a $7.7 million contract with Samet that school board members voted unanimously to approve in late July, which calls for substantial completion by late 2025.
Those upgrades at Williams High School, and seven other schools that will receive similar upgrades under separate contracts awarded to Samet in July, are being funded by the remaining portion of the federal stimulus funding for Covid-19 that ABSS received at the height of the pandemic, Hook recalled this week.
Williams High School principal Curry Bryan who accompanied the newspaper during the tour Tuesday, described the condition of the building as “the cleanest I’ve ever seen it – and that’s as someone who was a student here and as someone whose daughter is a junior [here] now.”
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Hook acknowledged during the tour that ABSS will need to address ongoing problems with water intrusion on the ground floor at Williams High School.
Earlier this year, Hook presented numerous photographs to school board members to illustrate how water seeps into the “subterranean” (i.e., below ground level) portions of Williams High School, particularly during heavy rainstorms.
Water seeps through single-pane windows that line the upper part of the cafeteria walls, and water pushes in through cracks and gaps in mortar in brick staircases near a side door leading from the cafeteria to the school grounds, Hook said during the earlier presentation.
REI Engineers of Raleigh initially estimated it would cost $4 million to stop the water intrusion at Williams, Hook told school board members during the earlier discussion. Hook didn’t present a funding request at the time but did indicate that ABSS will need to eventually fix the problem.
REI is currently working “to develop a scope of work to guide” the repair of an existing metal roof at Williams High School, Hook told the newspaper this week.
“In the meantime, we are taking necessary precautions to ensure the spaces in our schools are safe,” Hook emphasized. “While mold is a challenge we will continue to face due to environmental conditions, we remain committed to our ongoing maintenance plan, which includes regular inspections, HVAC improvements, and building repairs to address the root causes of indoor moisture.”
ABSS spent $2.6 to remediate mold at Williams High School in September 2023, based on contracts with Builder Services that the school board approved at the time. (System-wide, the total cost for mold remediation, third-party air testing, and dehumidifier rentals and purchases was $27.2 million during the previous 2023-24 fiscal year.)
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