A spokeswoman with the St. Lucie County School District said Tuesday that there are no air quality issues now inside two portable classrooms at Morningside Elementary in Port St. Lucie.
An outdoor plumbing problem impacted those classrooms.
Parents are upset they didn’t get a letter from the school until Monday, despite the district first being made aware of the issue back on April 5.
“When work was initiated, the very first thing that took place was an air quality test that determined there was no health or safety concern," said Kerry Padrick, Chief Communications Officer for the school district.
But concerns over odors first surfaced after spring break and in fact, a maintenance manager had put in a work order back on March 27.
“We later found out that the work was misidentified in that work order," said Padrick.
So the initial problem wasn’t fixed until 10 days later.
The teachers and students who were impacted by those odors are not back in the classrooms and at this point, it’s unclear when they’ll return. The school district insists the classrooms are safe and conducted three air quality tests, one by an outside agency. The district says right now, it's being cautious.
“In order to make sure that teachers, students, safe feel comfortable in their learning environments," said Padrick.
Padrick says parents with questions and concerns should reach out to the school or the administration.