BIDDEFORD – Two months after a severe allergic reaction to mold in Biddeford High School sent her to the hospital by ambulance, Marina Gagne still is not back in school full time.

After a workshop Wednesday night to let students and parents share their concerns before the School Committee and city councilors, the high school junior still was unsure whether the air quality issues will be resolved.

“With these workshops, I feel like we never get anywhere,” she said.

Issues of air quality in the school, which is being renovated, came to light after Gagne and another student, School Committee member Roberta Bernier’s daughter Kelsie, were taken to the hospital with allergic reactions.

Tests by Air Quality Management revealed poor air quality in three rooms, which were sealed off in early December. The heating vents, desks, walls and floors of those rooms were thoroughly cleaned, and the rooms were reopened after a second round of tests revealed a lower mold-spore count.

In addition to concerns about mold, parents questioned the amount of dust being tracked in from the renovation work by Ledgewood Construction Co.

Since early December, the school’s custodial staff has increased its cleaning efforts, Ledgewood Construction has worked to better seal construction zones from the areas in use, and Larry Mare, an engineering technician with the Maine Bureau of General Services, has reviewed the test results from Air Quality Management and toured the school with Superintendent Sarah-Jane Poli.

A second opinion on the safety of the school is now being sought from H.L. Turner Group of Harrison, Poli said. The company will do a forensic study of the building, she said, and will follow recommendations by John Boilard, a specialist in industrial hygiene and occupational exposure assessment, who gave a presentation at Wednesday’s meeting.

Boilard recommends checking bathrooms, janitorial closets, corner rooms and lockers, and interviewing students, staff members and parents about any symptoms they may have.

Josh Hauck, a Biddeford High sophomore, said he has headaches daily during his class in Room 215, one of the rooms that was closed. He said he also started getting nosebleeds two or three times a week.

“The (school) nurse said I had high blood pressure,” Hauck said. “Well, high blood pressure and nosebleeds happen to be two of the symptoms” that Boilard listed in his presentation.

Mayor Joanne Twomey, who called the meeting, saying it was an opportunity for officials to listen, said she has reached a point that “is very discouraging.”

“We knew it would be very difficult for us to renovate this school while we were in school,” she said, but closing the school and moving students would require opening teacher contracts because classes would have to be held at night.

H.L. Turner Group is scheduled to start its assessment of the school Jan. 27, Poli said.

Staff Writer Emma Bouthillette can be contacted at 791-6325 or at:

ebouthillette@pressherald.com