(File Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County eye)
KENOSHA, Wis. — Students at Reuther Central High School and Harborside Academy will start the school year one day late after mold discovered inside the shared Reuther-Harborside building required professional remediation and kept staff from safely entering the building to prepare classrooms.
Kenosha Unified School District Chief Communications Officer Tanya Ruder confirmed Tuesday morning that mold remediation took longer than anticipated and caused the delay. She said staff and families were kept informed throughout the process and that employees were returning to the building Tuesday to prepare for students Wednesday.
The district first notified families that mold had been identified in the Reuther and Harborside building over the summer. KUSD’s Facilities Department hired Environmental Management Consulting, Inc. to conduct what the district described as a comprehensive visual assessment. Professional remediation was recommended following that assessment.
Remediation began Aug. 19. According to the district, crews sealed affected areas, cleaned surfaces and operated air scrubbers while additional testing was conducted to determine whether further work would be necessary.
The mold problem was significant enough that Harborside’s Aug. 26 open house was canceled to give remediation crews additional time and allow KUSD officials to review testing results before students returned.
Initially, district officials hoped the building would be ready for the normal start of classes. That timetable ultimately slipped.
In an updated notice sent to Reuther families and staff, Principal Kim Fischer said mold cleanup was still underway and the district had been told the building would become accessible Sept. 1. Staff, however, had not yet been able to safely enter the building to prepare classrooms.
Harborside Principal Trent Barnhart sent families essentially the same update, saying the first day of school would be pushed to Wednesday, Sept. 2, while staff reported Tuesday to prepare the school.
Both schools plan to make up the lost instructional time later in the academic year.
At Harborside, Oct. 30, 2026, and March 25, 2027, will be changed from half days to full instructional days. At Reuther, the Oct. 29, 2026, and March 24, 2027, finals days will similarly be converted from half days to full days.
KUSD said follow-up testing will be performed to determine whether the cleanup was successful and that the building will continue to be monitored throughout the school year.
Ruder told Kenosha County Eye that the additional day would allow employees to return Tuesday and prepare classrooms and the building before students arrive Wednesday.
“We communicated with staff and families throughout the process to keep them informed,” Ruder said. “Remediation took longer than anticipated, which delayed the first day of school.”
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14 Responses
When you have all freaking summer to get these schools ready for day one…
…but when you have to wait for quotes to come in, choose the appropriate remediator, get on their schedule, and hope that there aren’t any setbacks or findings that require even more work.
…but if my business was ran like KUSD I would be out of business
Kevin you need to dig into the bigger story here with KUSD and that is KUSD does not test for mold. If they can’t see it it doesn’t exist, only if it’s seen is any action taken with current policy and procedures.
They held freshman gear up on the 18th. The students were at school all day! So they knew about mold but still held that event?
Email said they found it on the 19th. And the students are outside in the park area for gear up, not in the school building.
If they only had more money for the children
Isn’t fixing a mold problem in a school building “for the children?”
Is there a school building around here that doesn’t have mold? Public or private? Bullen had issues with mold, as has Bradford, Tremper and Christian Life School. The old musty county schools don’t even test for mold, but I can’t imagine. At least Harborside/ Reuther had it tested and had a professional clean it up instead of having the janitor throw some bleach on it.
They tore down the ones without mold.
Harborside has always known there is mold teachers have made comments about the basement having mold for the past 2 years and it’s only being dealt with now after students have been exposed to this for how long?
they had a few classrooms in the basement … poor kids and staff that went through that after telling them about the mold problem
Referendum money
Geez, if they only had the months of June and July and half of August to fix this….
Yet another fake reason to have a referendum…