Barack Obama Elementary School closed indefinitely due to mold, rodents

Richmond, Virginia’s Barack Obama Elementary School has been closed down indefinitely, as officials tackle the building’s mold and rodent problems. The school was originally scheduled to open on August 24 to welcome students for their first day.

In a message to families on Monday, Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras said that teachers and staff setting up for the year had discovered “additional areas of mold growth (for example, behind bulletin board paper).” The district sent everyone home for additional testing and cleaning, per WTVR. 

Kamras wrote, “All of this is realistically going to take several days. So we will not be returning to the Obama building this week. Our goal is to do so by Monday. In the interim, we are working to get Clark Springs Elementary School ready as a temporary space. We’ll have more information about that by tomorrow. For now, school is closed on Tuesday.”

A Wednesday alert to families stated that due to an HVAC outage, “we found mold growth in the basement and on some furniture, which impacted the school’s air quality.” Remediation for mold found in that circumstance was set to be completed by Thursday morning. Additionally, the school has hired an exterminator after reports of rodents in rooms were received. 

A parent, Samieh, said of the situation, “Roller coaster is a good word. The information keeps kind of cascading of ‘This is what’s going to happen. Oh, actually, it’s not what’s going to happen. Oh, we’re good. Oh, we’re not good.’”

Kamaras said in the latest alert to parents that the remediation efforts have uncovered what crews believe is the root cause of the mold. “Most importantly, our remediation efforts uncovered what we believe is the primary source of the mold growth, which was a moist pipe hidden in a supply closet above ceiling tiles. We were able to thoroughly clean this impacted area, and the mold levels dropped significantly in response.”