Freehold school closed for months because of mold, where will students go?

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — Students of a Freehold Township elementary school will be temporarily relocated to other buildings in the district after mold was discovered in their building.

The Laura Donovan Elementary School may be closed for months as remediation takes place, district officials said this week.

"Our plan will provide safe, stable class space and ample time to provide a clean Donovan building," school board President Michael Amoroso wrote Thursday in a letter to the school community. "The timeframe is still unknown exactly but the estimation is that we are off-site for a few months at most."

School officials said the source of the mold remains under investigation by engineers and district consultants. Custodial staff discovered the mold earlier this summer and reported it to administrators, they said.

Because Freehold Township School District's enrollment has declined from a high of 4,500 students to its current 3,400, there is plenty of classroom space to accommodate the Donovan students and teachers, Amoroso said in the letter. Laura Donovan Elementary accommodates about 460 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, according to the New Jersey Department of Education.

"The relocated students will be in individual classrooms with their respective Donovan teacher and classmates," the school board president said. "Classrooms are not going to be shared and large group spaces are not being used."

Remediation efforts are happening seven days per week, but the work is taking longer than originally expected, Superintendent Neal Dickstein said in a statement shared with the Press.

"We anticipate that these alternate arrangements may last several months, and we are committed to communicating regular updates with parents and staff as information becomes available," Dickstein said in the statement. "We are working diligently to remediate the mold and are especially grateful to the Donovan families who are showing patience, flexibility, and understanding during this time."

The students' temporary reassignment is based on grade level:

• Donovan kindergarteners will be bused to C. Richard Applegate Elementary.
• First and second graders will attend Marshall W. Errickson Elementary.
• Third and fourth graders will be relocated to West Freehold Elementary.
• Fifth graders will go to Joseph J. Catena Elementary.

The situation has stirred controversy in the community.

Amoroso said social media users had crafted "a string of misinformation and personal verbal attacks" online over the school's closure.

"As in all schools across the state, there are always random instances of mold appearing for various reasons," the school board president said. "In many cases, these are contained and remediated quickly without disturbance to the opening of an entire building. However, false rumors are spreading around social media that the mold was alwaysthere at Donovan and just being covered up. That is completely false."

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Amoroso said a factor in the cleanup is the large number of classrooms with wood panel ceilings that need to be cleaned and removed.

He added that temporarily relocating students to different buildings was a better alternative than placing Donovan students into virtual instruction.

"A parent session is being planned with a representative from our professional consultants to answer questions as soon as all the data is ready," the school board president said.

Dickstein, the superintendent, said the district was fortunate to have the classroom space to relocate the Donovan students.

"While we know this is disappointing for our Donovan families, the goals remain to keep students safe and to minimize disruption to the schedules of our families," he said.

Amanda Oglesby is an Ocean County native who covers education and the environment. She has worked for the Press for more than 16 years. Reach her at @OglesbyAPP, aoglesby@gannettnj.com or 732-557-5701.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Freehold school closed for months because of mold, where will students go?