Some Montgomery County parents, worried about mold and other air pollutants, are angry over the school system’s recent $3.1 million request regarding “portable” classrooms, prefabricated buildings used to ease overcrowding and accommodate long-term construction.
At least four elementary schools with portables deemed unsatisfactory by a recent district air quality assessment are not slated for replacements by the start of next school year: Laytonsville, DuFeif, Burning Tree and Bradley Hills, according to information from parents and the schools’ facilities director, Joe Lavorgna.
The money, an advance on a 2009 appropriation for the county’s construction projects, will be used to relocate some trailers and restore land left vacant by other reductions in the county’s current supply of portables — 566 as of November.
“In a lot of the units, it’s impossible to stop water from getting in,” said Laurie Halverson, a parent representative for the cluster of schools feeding into Potomoc’s Winston Churchill High School. “And the district doesn’t have enough people to do proper maintenance.”
The fears, Halverson said, are of allergic reactions and the effects on young lungs when exposed to mold and parasites. In 2006, the air quality in portables at Bells Mill Elementary caused serious illness in students and teachers, Halverson said.
Lavorgna expressed concern about the condition of the classrooms, but stressed that as construction projects reach completion, the number of portables decline and the quality goes up, as the first tobe replaced are those with the poorest air-quality standards.
In the upcoming school year, the district plans to begin nine new elementary additions to accommodate a surge in growth at the youngest grades. By 2013, school projections show enrollment increases of 8 percent, to nearly 51,000 students.
The new additions will decrease the number of portables by 98, according to the district’s capital budget.
Although the county executive fully funded the budget through 2014, it awaits approval by the County Council.
“If funding is slowed, our ability to remove them will be slowed, too,” Lavorgna said.
