HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Last month, Hopewell Area Elementary School in Beaver County announced they were going virtual after more than 100 kids were out sick.
Then, parents said an unpleasant odor and a rodent infestation was making kids sick after work was being done to open a wall at the school.
Parents told Channel 11 they wanted more transparency from the school as to what exactly happened and what went wrong.
On Tuesday, the district gave an explanation as to how this all happened during a special environmental update presentation to parents.
District superintendent Jeff Beltz said in December, employees opened a wall in the hallway and in the boys bathroom at the school.
When the walls were opened, mold, two dead mice, rodent droppings and nesting were found, along with a strong odor.
After this discovery, some students in the building fell ill and went home sick.
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The district admitted they didn’t take the right steps when pursuing the project prior to school hours but have since remediated the issue by meeting with the health department, which later ran tests saying the mold found was not related to the illness in students.
Tuesday, the district also showed parents where they pulled open classroom walls and cabinets where the odor was also coming from, saying that they have since been replaced.
The district also had the water tested at the school as a precaution, and said the results came back normal.
Beltz said the building is safe and they are inviting parents to come in to see the building for themselves.
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