Environmental consultants were to begin a thorough inspection of five classrooms Friday night at Andrew High School in Tinley Park after the “potential for mold” was found this week behind cabinets in the rooms.
The five rooms were closed Wednesday after consultants Boelter and Yates of Park Ridge reported the potential for mold, said Liz Johnson, Andrew’s associate principal.
“We felt the need to be proactive and move quickly to shut the classrooms until we have more information,” Johnson said. She said the consultants expected to finish the inspection over the weekend and report their findings to the school Monday.
“There was a high-moisture content found in the cabinets [at Andrew] that could have come from the roof,” district spokesman Jim Sibley said Friday.
Johnson said the consultants need to determine if there is a mold problem and, if there is, to determine the proper steps to resolve it.
“We want to take care of the problem now so it doesn’t become a bigger issue,” Johnson said.
A letter was being sent to all parents Friday to update them on the work being done, Johnson said, adding, “We’ve never had any health concerns from anyone in these classrooms.”
Classes scheduled in the five rooms at Andrew, which are in an older part of the school, will be moved to rooms in a new addition, said school officials.
The district’s environmental consultants are inspecting all rooms at Andrew and Stagg High Schools in Palos Hills, after completing a similar search at Sandburg High School in Palos Township. Mold was found in a science lab at Sandburg. That room was closed and classes moved to another room.
All three District 230 high schools are in the final stages of a $143 million renovation project begun in 1999, which has ballooned from an originally estimated $118 million.
The work at Sandburg has prompted a variety of health complaints from students and teachers.
A recent interim report by Boelter and Yates cited a variety of factors that may have prompted the health complaints from 60 students and teachers at Sandburg. The report found ventilation and boiler problems that might have caused headaches, nausea, itchiness and rashes.
