Cairo cleans up mold in elementary school, touts making AYP

CAIRO, Ill. -- Cairo public school officials closed Bennett Elementary School on Friday so a St. Louis cleanup firm could work through the weekend to remove mold found in the building. The school, which serves students in grades three through six, reopened Monday.

Superintendent Gary Whitledge said the mold was discovered above a suspended ceiling in a classroom a week ago Friday. "We closed that classroom and wiped down all the furniture," he said. The class was moved last week to a vacant classroom.

Air samples were taken throughout the school building. The testing found smaller amounts of mold in a second classroom.

Workers with the St. Louis firm spent the weekend removing mold and sealing the ceiling, Whitledge said.

Making the AYP

The superintendent said he hopes talk of mold in the school building doesn't overshadow the district's latest academic accomplishment. Students in the Cairo Junior and Senior High School made adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Whitledge said.

Students in seventh, eighth and 11th grades take the Illinois standardized tests. For a school to be listed as making adequate yearly progress in Illinois, 47.5 percent of the test-taking students must score at proficient or advanced.

The Cairo Junior and Senior High School scored 33 percent. But the federal "safe harbor" provision in the law rewards schools for making significant progress in boosting test scores. That allowed the school to meet AYP, Whitledge said.

"We had well over 10 percent growth in the scores in junior and senior high school," Whitledge said.

The school made AYP for the first time in years, he said. Whitledge said that's a sign of progress in the school district. "The students are beginning to focus more on achievement," he said.

The district had struggled in recent years to improve the schools in a city plagued by poverty.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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