Displaced elementary school students will have a place to finish the school year, following the closure of the interim school site that Olympic View Elementary was using this year.

The problem emerged at the old North Whidbey Middle School building in Oak Harbor that has been used as an interim school site during remodeling of Olympic View Elementary. The middle school building has been closed for the remainder of the school year due to concerns that it is making people sick.

Olympic View’s kindergarten through fifth-graders, about 430 students, will go to school at three separate locations through the end of the year. The Oak Harbor School District, with some help from the community, found enough space for classrooms for the entire student body in just two days last week.

Teachers and staff members are now settling into the three locations, getting ready for school to resume Monday morning. Hillcrest Elementary School, Oak Harbor Elementary and the Oak Harbor Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will host kindergarterns through fifth graders in various classrooms, multi-purpose rooms and in gymnasiums. The educational wing of the church building was offered to the school district free of charge, said Dave Peterson, Oak Harbor’s assistant superintendent.

The shutdown of the school started after the end of classes on April 19. Rick Schulte, superintendent of Oak Habor schools, officially closed the old school after a meeting with staff members late that Friday afternoon. Parents were notified of the closure by phone over the following weekend.

The next Monday, hundreds of parents showed up at Oak Harbor High School for a meeting called by the district to provide information and to answer questions about health concerns at North Middle School. Oak Harbor police had to be called to the high school as a precautionary measure after the board closed the meeting to the public.

During the public portion of the meeting, Olympic View Principal Joyce Swanson said the idea that the school could be making people sick developed over a period of time and came to a head two weeks ago.

“In retrospect, (informing parents earlier) would have been a good idea,” Swanson said.

According to Shulte, the district had been investigating poor air quality at North Middle School since October. The school, built in 1952, was no longer in use as a school building when Olympic View students started school there in three years ago. While the district has no concrete results from that investigation, Schulte ordered the school closed as a precautionary measure.

Both staff and students have reported health problems they believe have something to do with the school building. Gerald Judd, a second-grade teacher at the school, has been seeing an ear, nose and throat specialist since February. He said his doctor has told him that he is having a reaction to toxic mold. Judd went into the school on April 20 to phone his students about the cancellation of school the following week and to gather some belongings. He quickly became ill and left the building.

“I was sick all day Saturday and Sunday,” Judd said in a telephone interview on Monday. “Today I’m on sick leave. I can’t go back in.”

Carrie Cupit a mother of two Olympic View students who was at last week’s school board meeing, said said her daughter has been complaining of headaches “every single day,” and that her son has been sick often this year with headaches and stomach problems.

“Why weren’t we told earlier?” Cupit asked the school board.

She said afterwards that she thought the meeting was worthless.

“I was anticipating to get answers why,” Cupit said. “I think it was a bunch of bull. Nobody had their questions answered. They were avoided.”

At another meeting held last week, the district and the school board was put on notice that it needs to get all the facts about the closure and the air quality at the school into the open.

“There best not be a cover-up. The evidence best not be bulldozed,” said Peter Szalai, co-president of the Oak Harbor Education Association. “We want a thorough, invasive assessment.”

Teachers and students moved around in time for school this week. Principal Swanson credited her faculty and classified staff for the success of the move in such a short period, citing that the teachers and staff worked hard this week to get the job done.

Swanson also said that, realistically, teachers, staff, parents and students will still face some challenges.

“I know we’re going to have glitches, but we’ll just keep at it,” Swanson said.

The school district held three open houses on Friday afternoon, one at each temporary school site, to acclimate students and parents to the new surroundings. Additionally, Olympic view fourth-graders have been granted a one-week extension by the state to complete the Washington Assessment of Student Learning test, which all other fourth-graders in the state began last past.

School district personnel walked through the temporary school sites this week with city officials, including the fire chief, said Bruce Worley, executive director for operations for the district. The various set-ups for students at all three locations met all code requirements and were approved for use. A transition team made up of school district department heads banded together this week to try to solve dozens of logistical and educational challenges associated with the emergency move of Olympic View to temporary locations.

The school board also approved a request to the state that, if approved, would provide Olympic View students an exemption from having to make up the lost school days this week.