Classes will resume Friday at Talbot Community School in Portland now that key instructional spaces have been cleaned, tested and cleared for occupancy after mold was detected in some classrooms.

However, the Riverton Branch of the Portland Public Library, which is located in the same building, still requires mold remediation and remained closed Wednesday.

“The Riverton Branch will be closed until further notice while it undergoes mold evaluation and treatment,” according to a statement on the branch’s website.

All books being held for Riverton Branch patrons will be available at the Burbank Branch during this period, the statement said.

The school district will work with the city to address the mold issue at the library branch, Superintendent Ryan Scallon said Wednesday in a separate statement.

Scallon said teachers will return to Talbot on Thursday to finish setting up their classrooms for all students in the school, which serves pre-K through fifth grade.

Scallon announced last week that the start of classes at Talbot would be delayed for two days to make sure key instructional spaces and the school library were cleared for occupancy.

Mold was found in 16 classrooms in mid-August, he said, and the district needed more time to clean and retest the building.

Aspergillus, the type of mold found, is common both indoors and outdoors and doesn’t make most people sick, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, it can put people with weakened immune systems or lung disease at higher risk of developing additional health problems, so the district wanted to ensure the building was safe for everyone, Scallon said.

The district hired two mold-remediation companies and two air-testing labs to finish the work as quickly as possible, but the long Labor Day weekend meant the latest lab results weren’t available until Wednesday, he said.

“We are deeply grateful to Talbot staff, students and families for your patience and understanding regarding this delayed start of school,” Scallon said.

All spaces in the school except the gym and a small number of offices had been tested and cleared to be occupied by Wednesday afternoon, he said. Test results on the offices were expected later Wednesday. The gym will remain unoccupied until it is cleared, which is expected next week.

The district will retest the building later in the fall, Scallon said.

“We anticipate that, as occurs in all buildings, there may be small amounts of mold identified throughout the year,” he said. “When that happens, we will work with our facilities team and environmental consultants to safely address it.”

The district still doesn’t know what caused the mold outbreak, although an especially rainy summer likely was a contributing factor.

“We continue our efforts to determine the root cause of the mold problem,” Scallon said. “Although mold crops up at times in isolated cases at all of our schools – which we work to immediately remediate – the number of spaces affected at Talbot was unusually high.”

The district is working with the city’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning expert to reduce humidity in the building and revise the way carpets are cleaned so it doesn’t exacerbate moisture levels, he said.

Families again will be able to pick up a bagged breakfasts and lunches outside the school on Thursday from 7-10 a.m.

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