Even As Mold Removal Efforts End, Health Concerns Persist At P.S. 67

P.S. 67 parent Ambareen Rizvi checked her inbox at the end of a 10-day holiday break this week for an email from school officials that never came.

"I'm very surprised that I haven't heard anything," Rizvi said.

Two weeks after the of potentially harmful mold in basement classrooms at P.S. 67, Rizvi said she had not received a single email, telephone call or handwritten letter updating her about efforts to clear the school of a hazard she believed was a contributing factor to her 6th grader's recent health problems.

"I'm terrified," Rizvi said. "I still don't know whether to pull my son out of school, whether it's safe for him there or not."

Meanwhile, a second parent of a P.S. 67 student complaining of respiratory problems came forward this week. 

According to Michele Zirpoli, her son, an 8th grader at the school, experienced several bouts of pneumonia in the past year — with the latest occurance taking place last November as he prepared to take the entrance exam to one of the city's Catholic high schools.

When Zirpoli learned of the mold discovery this week, she approached school staff members to get an update on the remediation work.

"They were evasive and basically non-responsive," Zipoli said.

Environmental remediation firm The Louis Berger Associates PC worked through last week's blizzard to seal a  and clear at least three affected classrooms of the potentially toxic Cladosporium mold while youngsters were on winter break.

A schools spokesperson confirmed mold remediation was completed over the holiday break along with corrective waterproofing work.

However, according to Community Education District Council 26 president Rob Caloras, work still needs to be done to find a "permanent fix" to the problem.

Cladosporium has been linked to respiratory problems, including pneumonia.

According to the authors of a mold survey completed on Dec. 21, the potentially hazardous Cladosporium was found on the ceiling, walls and windowpanes of three rooms used for jazz, dance and band classes.

Rizvi said her son began complaining of asthma-like symptoms shortly after attending music classes in one of the contaminated rooms. Like many 6th graders at P.S. 67, Rizvi's son was required to choose from a selection of cultural activities housed in a section of the school plagued by a water leak reported as early as November 2008.

"They must have known about this problem for many years. It did not grow in one month," Rizvi said of the mold found at P.S. 67. "They must have known."