School goes remote after low oxygen
Seventh and eighth grade students at North Little Rock Middle School will pivot to remote instruction today after officials on Tuesday detected “a strong odor” in one of the classrooms, Superintendent Gregory J. Pilewski said.
“We have not been able to establish the cause of the odor,” he said in an announcement on the district’s webpage Tuesday evening, adding that remote learning is being done “out of precaution” until the problem can be cleared.
On Tuesday morning, the North Little Rock Fire Department responded to a call from the school, where some students and teachers reported feeling nauseated and dizzy, according to Dustin Barnes, the North Little Rock School District’s communications coordinator.
The fire department’s hazmat crews tested the air quality and detected low-oxygen levels. Officials relocated the students to the Charging Wildcat Arena at the North Little Rock High School campus.
Pilewski said the situation does not affect the Sixth Grade Campus at the middle school.
That campus, he said, will operate as normal today.
He thanked the school community “for your patience, understanding, and flexibility regarding the evacuation of the campus [Tuesday],” he said.
The situation at the middle school was the second time that the district has had a problem at one of its buildings recently.
On Feb. 22, district officials shifted ninth through twelfth grade students to remote learning for three consecutive days after a discovery of bats at the high school.
The middle school and high school building issues are unrelated.