BOULDER — Nearly 500 students and staff members at Boulder’s Southern Hills Elementary were evacuated just before noon today because of a construction “incident” that might have released asbestos into the school, said Boulder Valley School District spokesman Briggs Gamblin.
Construction workers notified school and district officials at 8:30 a.m. about the incident — details of which aren’t yet known — and Boulder Valley sent material from the work site to a lab in Denver for contamination tests, Gamblin said.
“That came back as having asbestos in it,” he said, adding that officials don’t yet know whether asbestos was released in a student-populated area.
They’re doing further air tests in the building at 1500 Knox Drive to determine whether the building is safe. Gamblin said the district will announce later today whether school will be canceled Thursday.
“The samples will be driven to a private lab we use in Denver. We’ll pay to have the results expedited, and we hope to know by late this afternoon or evening about air quality in the school,” Gamblin said.
As a “cautionary measure,” all of the Southern Hills students and staff were evacuated to neighboring Fairview High School about 11:40 a.m., where they’re being held in the auditorium until school lets out after 3 p.m., Gamblin said. Students are being fed school lunch, and buses are running on time, he said.
Reverse 911 calls were sent out to Southern Hills parents, alerting them of the situation and letting them know they can pick up their children at Fairview, Gamblin said.
“The air-quality tests will tell us the scope of the problem we’re dealing with,” Gamblin said.
For additional information, call the Boulder Valley School District at 303-447-1010 or Fairview at 303-499-7600
Get more Boulder news at .
