No mold to be found at Windsor school where photos were taken of black spots

by: Bob Wilson

Posted: Aug 30, 2023 / 11:20 PM EDT

Updated: Aug 31, 2023 / 05:32 AM EDT

WINDSOR, Conn. (WTNH) — Parents continue to question Windsor Public Schools leaders about photos of mold in an elementary school, but a Wednesday inspection from News 8 found no sign of a problem.

Photos, some of which are a few years old, appear to show mold growing on desks, chairs and walls. Parents have shared the photos, which they said were taken within days of the start of school by an anonymous school employee.

Superintendent Terrell Hill brought News 8 into Oliver Ellsworth Elementary School to show the current conditions inside.

“It’s been happening for years, even before I got here in 2014,” said Danielle Batchelder, the district’s director of business services. “We have a difficult time regulating the humidity in this building. We test every July or August every summer to make sure it’s safe for the kids and staff to come back in, and every year the report has come back that there is more mold growth outside than inside the building.”

The Windsor Health Department told News 8 on Monday that the mold grew due to high humidity levels, and there was no need to delay the start of school due to short and long-term mitigation strategies in place like dehumidifiers, deep cleaning and HVAC system adjustments.

The school has been tested for mold at least eight times since it was found in 2014. Each time, reports have declared it is safe for people to be in the building.

“Those photos were from last summer, again, not even when kids were in the school, last summer,” Hill said. “And when that black mold was discovered on the tiles, and bulletin boards, so all those fabric bulletin boards were removed. We brought in the dehumidifiers and now we’re going to add more. We just actually finished meeting with the town manager. We are coming up with a strategy to do even more to ensure that the mold is not increasing.”

News 8 checked every classroom, along with lockers, underneath chairs and desks, behind televisions, in coat closet and cubicles, the walls behind filing cabinets and tiles. No mold could be found.

“We are cleaning the school every single day, but they are also looking for and ensuring that they are mediating any mold that might grow, so they are doing a deeper cleaning at least once a week,” Hill said.