Black Mold Discovered In School

For the past three years, a strange odor has reeked from the vocational school at Science Hill High School.  A Knoxville company conducted testing on the building to find the source of the three year stench.  The firm revealed several factors including building age, moisture, and cleaning products played a role in raising the stink.  Thursday night, that same company met with city and school system leaders to discuss a solution to the problem.

The contractor identified many sources that caused the stink throughout the building and the HAVAC system for circulating the bad odor.  As for the solution:  leaders talked about several “fixes” but didn’t devise a definite plan.

It lingered in the air since 2005…

“We felt we had problems.  Some worse than others.  I was fortunate that I did not have that many problems,“ said Tammy Harris who taught at Science Hill’s vocational school.

Harris says it was worst to work in the building during hottest part of the year.

“We were always in humidity especially during the summer,” said Harris.

Harris and others have been complaining about an offensive odor for awhile until they were told to move out so a contractor can sniff out the problem.  The final report simply described Science Hill’s vocational building as having sick building syndrome.  Bad roof, unmaintained HVAC system, and clogged drains provided for the perfect environment for black fungi and black mold to grow.

“Being a healthcare professional and working with lungs and respiratory, I was really concerned about issues of mold and what could actually happen them,“ said Harris.

She says people around her felt ill.

“Scratchy throat, headaches, problems we couldn’t deal with everyday,” said Harris.

The contractor tested the environment of the school.

“There was nothing in that report in all of their year-long analysis that identified a correlation between what was going on in that building and effecting individual’s health,” said Pete Peterson, city manager for Johnson City.

Beyond the costly repairs, the city took away a bigger lesson.

“Like everyone else, we have to pay more attention to more ongoing building maintenance,“ said Peterson.

The city said it may be able to tack on some repairs to the vocational schools to current capital projects.  For example, the city manager said the city will include the school on the list of other schools having their roofs repaired.

Aside from the new roof, leaders made no other decisions on how to proceed with other repairs.