Classes at Brookside Jr. High delayed, school to pay thousands in cleaning costs
Posted Sep 8, 2015 05:20:06 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HATCHET LAKE, N.S. – Classes for 330 students at Brookside Junior High School have been delayed until at least Thursday, as crews continue to clean mould found in the school.
Staff at the Hatchet Lake school originally discovered the mould when they returned from summer break on the last week of August, and officials were optimistic the building would be ready in time for the start of school but have had to delay its opening twice.
Pictures released by the school board over the weekend show extensive mould covering ceiling tiles, desks, books and boxes of learning materials, among other things.
The clean up is expected to cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Doug Hadley, Halifax Regional School Board spokesperson, told Global News the school will have to cover the costs for the clean up, which has now gone on for two straight weeks.
“It’s probably going to be something that we’re going to fully have to foot the bill, it’s probably not something we’re going to be able to turn over to insurance,” Hadley said.
“We have to put the resources there to get it done because we just can’t have school not starting for students, we need to get them back as soon as we can.”
The board was exploring the idea of having kids taken to different schools but Hadley said after checking with their transportation provider over the weekend, that wasn’t feasible .
“After a lot of study, we made the determination that we’re just not going to able to do that without impacting other school’s start and stop times, and it just becomes so complicated,” Hadley said.
