A Philadelphia elementary school will remain closed until Wednesday after traces of mold were found in classrooms.
Classes at John B. Kelly Elementary School on 5100 Pulaski Avenue in Germantown was closed Monday and will also be closed Tuesday. All staff members should report to the Hill Freedman World Academy on 1100 Mt. Pleasant Street Tuesday. The Philadelphia School District says they are in "the final stages of cleanup" and classes should reopen as regularly scheduled Wednesday.
Officials announced last week that traces of mold were found in several classrooms of the school after heating, ventilating and air-conditioning issues.
The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers claimed in a statement released Thursday however that staff members reported mold issues at the school long before the school district took action.
"Instead of taking proactive–and cost effective–steps to remediate the mold when it was first reported, the District allowed the situation to worsen to the point that the school had to be closed to address the issue," a PFT spokesperson wrote.
Lee Whack, the spokesman for the Philadelphia School District, told NBC10 the district took action immediately however when they learned about the mold.
"Once we were informed of this issue, we took immediate action," Whack said. "Within maybe an hour or so we had folks here."
Whack said that work on the school continued into Monday. "We are completely focused on the cleanup process."
The closure comes as schools in the Monroe Township School District in Gloucester County remain closed due to mold being found in one of its elementary schools.
