Classes have resumed for most of the 6,000 students who had a week off after the Monroe Township (N.J.) School District closed its six schools on Oct. 9 to check for mold contamination.
The Philadelphia Daily News reports that the decision to shut all the schools came days after after an environmental consultant detected widespread contamination in Holly Glen Elementary School. That school was closed, and parents reacted with outrage when they learned about the report.
Four days later, Schools Superintendent Charles Earling decided to shut the rest of the schools out of precaution.
After a week of inspections and some remediation, four of the six schools reopened Tuesday. Holly Glen and Whitehall Elementary School will remain closed while the district carries out a more extensive cleanup. The displaced students have been temporarily moved to other schools.
A task force created to serve as a liaison between the district and the community says the consultant, TTI Environmental, has mostly cleared the four schools that have reopened, though a few isolated rooms are still awaiting further testing and a possible cleanup.
