Teachers, students tell Manatee school board mold and air-quality problems persist at Lakewood Ranch High; district cites remediation steps

A Lakewood Ranch High School teacher told the Manatee County School Board on Oct. 28 that mold and poor indoor air quality in multiple classrooms have forced her from the classroom and are making students and staff sick.

"No one should have to choose between their health and their career," said Renny Fink, who teaches financial math and AP human geography at Lakewood Ranch High School. Fink said she has been out more than three weeks under the guidance of her rheumatologist and that at least 14 rooms on her campus are "significantly impacted." She urged the district to commission professional mold remediation, testing and a review of HVAC policies.

Student Jack Lawrence told the board he has seen mold "in almost every building" and urged the district to keep air conditioning running over weekends to reduce humidity. "This is a public-health issue," Lawrence said during the public-comment period.

Resident Martha Jacobs, speaking later in public comment, linked the facilities issues to broader district policy and funding choices and criticized a $125,000 line in the agenda for remediation as insufficient to protect students and staff.

District operations director Chris Clark (listed in the transcript as Mr. Clark) said the district responds quickly to leaks and other water intrusions and has contracted for remediation services under a consent-item authority; the board approved the consent agenda earlier in the meeting. Clark told the board the remediation line in the agenda reflects what the district spent and adjusted based on last year's usage and that the $125,000 authorization is intended to support emergent response by vendors such as SERVPRO. Clark also said the district will pursue a separate replacement of failing water lines at Lakewood Ranch; he said the contract for that work is roughly $4.51 million and that the total project budget is about $6 million. Those capital items were described in the operations update and are scheduled to come before the board for formal project approval.

Superintendent Lori Breslin acknowledged the public comments, thanked staff for rapid responses, and said the district is monitoring campuses and will provide updates to the board. Operations staff described HVAC scheduling practice as "cycling" the systems on and off during off-hours and said they can adjust run times when warranted; staff said some campus uses (for example, community events or church rentals) keep HVAC systems running at particular times.

Board members asked staff to report back to the board with findings and any additional requests for funding or schedule changes. Several board members said they were open to funding changes if evidence shows keeping systems running or other measures would prevent recontamination.

The board approved the consent agenda earlier in the meeting, which contained the remediation-services authorization; the vote on the consent agenda passed 5 to 0. The water-line replacement project was described in the operations remarks as an upcoming capital contract; staff said a formal request for that project will be brought forward for approval in the next months.

District officials said they will post updates to the district website and use established incident response procedures to document testing, remediation and adjustments to HVAC operation schedules.