SWEA CITY — The combined timing of whole-grade sharing and recent finds by an environmental specialist may cause the parting of the ways for North Kossuth and the St. John’s school building in Bancroft.
“This is just something we’re looking at ... I’m not necessarily recommending it,” North Kossuth Superintendent Mike Landstrum said at Monday’s school board meeting.
For many years, North Kossuth has shared a building with St. John’s of Bancroft. However, some problems with the building are becoming more clear.
“We know there’s asbestos and mold, and there have been trouble with leaks,” Landstrum said. “We’ve received complaints of some teachers and students getting headaches.”
An environmental specialist from the Institute of Environmental Assessment in Mankato was called in to assess the situation.
“He was going to take an air-quality sample,” Land-strum said. “But as soon as he walked into a classroom, he could smell it; there was no need to take an air-quality sample.”
While Landstrum hoped to give a full report to the board Monday, it had not been completed.
“He called me at 4:30 this afternoon and told me there were some major concerns with health issues,” Landstrum said. “He said he would tell me if there was no need to be concerned. But he is concerned.”
The worst-case scenario, Landstrum said, is if the leaks cause some asbestos or mold to become loose.
“We know there’s mold in the ceiling and the ceiling is bowing,” he said. “The worst-case scenario is if any of that ceiling collapses when there’s people there. Then we’ve got trouble.”
A teacher at the building who has her own children at the school expressed concern Monday.
“My room is one with a leak, and I had two and a half inches of water in a garbage can,” she said. “My concern is that it’s happening so quickly. I had no problems with leaks last year, and now it’s leaked twice this winter, two and a half to three inches of water in my classroom, and it’s not even April yet. The ceiling is sagging and I have 25 students, and my own children are here ... So four-fifths of my family are affected by this.”
Because the building is being leased to the district, it would be St. John’s responsibility to make repairs.
The idea of moving the grades out of the building could be a sore point for some in Bancroft. The last time the district moved grades, the two communities bickered about which would get which grades. At the time, several members of the community wanted the entire K-12 to attend either Swea City or Bancroft.
With the recent agreement of whole-grade sharing with the Sentral school district — which involves sending middle-school grades to Sentral — a wing of the Swea City school building will be open.
“Our major concerns are of health,” Landstrum stressed. “We’re not thinking about it in terms of a move; we’re thinking about the health of the people in the building.”
One school board member, Gary Anderson, agreed.
“I have a granddaughter in that building,” he said. “If there’s mold in that building that’s going to come falling down, then we need to get them out of there.”
Two meetings have been set to address the public on the issue. The inspector’s report will be complete and presented. The meetings are scheduled for 6:45 p.m. April 7 at Swea City, and 6 p.m. April 14 in Bancroft.
