Barack Obama Elementary School in Richmond temporarily closes after mold detected

Students and teachers will not be returning to the Barack Obama Elementary School campus this week after mold was detected in the building.

The school is working to get Clark Springs Elementary School ready in the meantime, as a temporary space in case it is needed, Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Karmas said in a letter to parents and staff on Tuesday.

"Our plan is to return to Obama as soon as it is safe to do so. The earliest that will be is next week, meaning that the building will remain closed until then," Karmas said.

Additional remediation efforts began at the school at 5 a.m. on Tuesday, Karmas said. The work includes crews searching throughout the building and conducting ongoing moisture checks to identify and address potential moisture intrusion points.

The school is looking into what child care support it may be able to provide this week and what seats may be available for students at nearby elementary schools, Karmas said.

Teachers and staff had begun setting up classrooms for students on Monday when they found additional areas of mold growth, including behind bulletin board paper, Karmas said in a letter on Monday.

"Out of an abundance of caution, we decided to send everyone home so we could thoroughly re-clean the newly identified areas and perform additional antimicrobial fogging. We will then retest every single room in the school. 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," Karmas wrote.

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"Please note that at no time was anyone in an area where air quality tests indicated elevated levels of mold (which is what is considered dangerous for occupancy)," Karmas wrote.

Karmas said the school would have more information about reopening on Tuesday.

On Sunday, Karmas told parents and staff that they believed the "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," Karmas said Sunday.