District beset with school bus wreck, bedbugs, bad smell in recent weeks

The Mars Area School District is working through a compendium of bad luck that has hit during the last two weeks, including a foul smell in the elementary school, bedbugs at the high school and a school bus accident.

“We’ve got bugs. We’ve got stink. We had a bus accident. It has just been an unlucky run,” school board President J. Dayle Ferguson said Tuesday.

Most of the school board’s work session Tuesday dealt with complaints about an odor at the elementary school. The odor worsened when the air conditioning was on, and parents believed that the smell was coming from mold, and their children were not safe.

“Several children went home sick,” said parent Aaron McKinney.

Another parent said her child will stay home until the district identifies and fixes the problem.

Superintendent Wes Shipley said Kress Construction, which is certified in the abatement of mold and other organic waste, worked with the maintenance staff to find the problem. After removing wall board and insulation, they found and removed bat droppings, then cleaned the area.

Some parents became alarmed when a photo of mold was posted on a Facebook page used by parents.

“I saw a picture. It was a closely defined picture. I had to spend a lot of time walking through the building to see where it was,” Mr. Shipley said, adding that the mold was “not active,” but the wallboard and insulation was also removed from that area.

He said the mold was found in a remote area of the school.

Mrs. Ferguson said that Mr. Shipley “needs to have the facts before he has something to communicate.”

“There is a narrative that Dr. Shipley, this administration and this board have not taken this seriously. That is not true,” she added. “He has invested a lot of time in finding the problem, finding the experts. We will continue to find the source of the stink until the stink is gone.”

On the bedbugs, administrators said that three bedbugs were found in the high school, in three separate rooms. Since one of the rooms was far from the others, the building was closed after school on Sept. 28, and was treated for bedbugs on Saturday.

The first bedbug was brought into the school by a student.

Mr. Shipley also reported that the district has asked the state Department of Transportation to look at safety on Route 228 near the intersection with Mars Road, after a school bus went over the guide rail on Sept. 24.

Some of the students on the bus were treated for minor injuries.

No mechanical issues were found with the bus, Mr. Shipley said.

Parent Amber Rush said that “everybody wants to be heard” in the district.

“No more pointing fingers,” she said. “We need to do the Rachel’s Challenge, and do the kindness.”