The school closed Jan. 23 after Environmental Health Services reported the presence of the mold spore Stachybotrys chartarum in two areas of the school. Nye County School Board member Mary Alice Atkinson said the mold check was conducted after the school received a complaint from a teacher.

The high school, which serves about 900 students, resumed classes in temporary facilities on Jan. 30. Portable classrooms are being used as is the school’s technology center. Rod Pekarek, interim superintendent of the Nye County School District, said that testing by Environmental Health Services showed no mold problems exist in the modular buildings.

The arrangement will continue until the mold problem is cleared from two wings of the high school, work that is expected to take up to four weeks. Pekarek said the tests showed the heaviest concentrations of mold were in the locker room area. He said mold growth in the 600 Classroom Wing was found to be moderate.

A Las Vegas construction company has been working since Jan. 25 tearing out portions of drywall with mold growth. The problem is thought to have been caused by flooding at the high school in 1997 and a problem with a broken water pipe that same year.

Publication date: 02/18/2002