Dear Talbot Community,

I’m writing to update you on our work to address the mold situation at Talbot Community School. At this time, we will not be able to open school on Wednesday, Sept. 6, as previously scheduled. Out of an abundance of caution, we will now open the school to staff on Thursday, Sept. 7. All students (preK, kindergarten and grades 1 through 5) will begin on Friday, Sept. 8.

We apologize to Talbot staff, students and families for the delay. We are committed to ensuring a safe school environment for all staff and students. That includes completing mold remediation and air quality testing of each space before it is reoccupied. We have contracted with two mold remediation companies and two air-testing labs. Many of the spaces have been cleaned, tested and cleared for occupancy. However, some spaces were not cleared and needed further cleaning and re-testing. With the lab testing companies closed over the holiday weekend, we won't have enough spaces confirmed to occupy for a safe start of the school year. Delaying opening the building for two days will allow extra time for further cleaning, testing and prep.

On Thursday, Sept. 7, we expect that all spaces except for the gym will be cleaned and cleared for occupancy. We will not occupy the gym until it is cleared, which we anticipate will happen by early in the week of Sept. 11. We also will retest the building later in the fall.

At the same time we’ve been working to mitigate the mold, we also have been trying to determine the root cause of the problem. We are taking steps such as working with the City’s HVAC expert to reduce the high levels of humidity in the building and revising the way we clean carpeting in the school so as not to exacerbate moisture levels. 

As a reminder, the mold found is Aspergillus, a mold that commonly exists both indoors and outdoors and that doesn’t make most people sick. However, it can put people with weakened immune systems or lung diseases at a higher risk of developing health problems. 

We want to thank all of our school-based staff for their cooperation. This week they have participated in professional development off site. This flexibility has allowed us to bring in a full contingent of remediation specialists to tackle the problem as expeditiously as possible. We are also deeply grateful to our custodial staff for all their assistance in the cleaning process.

Because Talbot staff will not be able to be in the building on Tuesday, Sept. 5,  they will report to Rowe Elementary for professional development.  We are in the process of identifying a separate location for Wednesday, Sept. 6. On Thursday, Sept. 7, staff will be in the building to set up classrooms.

Families should also know that bagged breakfast and lunch will be available for pick-up outside the school on Wednesday, Sept. 6 and Thursday, Sept. 7, from 7 to 10 a.m. each day.

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Principal Terry Young can be contacted at youngt@portlandschools.org and our Executive Director for Operations, Dr. Sarah Warren, can be reached at warres@portlandschools.org.
 

Ryan Scallon, Ed.D. 
Superintendent