Granville County Board votes to relocate Mary Potter students after mold tests

The Granville County Board of Education on Tuesday voted to relocate students and staff from the Mary Potter Center for Education after independent air-quality testing found elevated levels of mold spores in multiple areas of the campus.

Board member Dr. Winborn presented the laboratory results and recommended a relocation plan, saying the lab found an “altered indoor fungal ecology,” scientific language he said is used to describe the presence of mold. He recommended what the presentation called “Solution B”: move affected programs and employees to the vacant Holly Creedmoor campus rather than perform immediate, large-scale remediation at Mary Potter.

The recommendation followed testing done this year and additional rounds after a staff report of poor air quality. The district contracted a third-party laboratory; according to the report summarized for the board, technicians took 30 airborne samples and 16 surface samples across the Mary Potter campus. The presenter said 24 of the 30 air samples and 10 of the 16 surface samples showed an altered indoor fungal ecology, with the highest readings concentrated in the 300 wing and elevated results in parts of the 200 wing. Tests of the boardroom, administrative suite and Phoenix Academy (the 400 wing) returned normal results. The presenter also noted that humidity readings were above recommended ranges in many tested areas, a condition that…