Mold forces emergency closing of preschool

By LARRY KAHN

40 students moved to another site

High levels of mold have been found at the Frederick Douglass Child Development Center in Key West, forcing the 40 students there to be moved to another school.

The center, at 103 Olivia St., is operated by Wesley House Family Services.

Wesley House Chief Executive Officer Doug Blomberg says "we were doing some testing" and the results that came in Friday forced the closure.

A "remediation" plan will now be developed -- and that could mean something as small as "cleaning the surfaces" or completely "redoing the building," Blomberg says.

In the meantime, the 40 students, who range from infant to age 5, have been moved to the Inez Martin Child Development Center at 1100 Varela St. That Wesley House center has just recently been renovated.

"Inez will have about 100 students now," Blomberg says. "And it's capable of handling beyond that because we just renovated the Inez Martin facility. And we moved the teachers over from Douglass."

The Douglass center will be closed "for an undetermined period of time."

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