MACHIAS – The Machias School Committee will conduct a public meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 9, to update residents on air quality renovations at the Rose M. Gaffney Elementary School.

The meeting will take place at 6 p.m. in the cafeteria of Machias Memorial High School.

The second phase of the project – replacing the floors, ceilings and the heating system in the two-story section of the school – should be completed by mid-November Machias, Superintendent Bruce Sawyer said Friday.

There have been, however, some unanticipated problems.

“We’ve discovered we’ll have to do some additional work,” Sawyer said. “We’ve found fungal growth on the exterior sheetrock.”

Sheetrock was used as exterior sheathing for the building, and it appears that it got wet because of improper flashing, Sawyer said.

The fungus-contaminated sheetrock lies behind the insulation and the interior sheetrock, and the state does not recommend air quality testing as a result of the contamination, he said.

The school committee began the $1.2 million air quality improvement project in May with a $624,100 grant and a 10-year $375,900 interest-free loan from Maine’s Revolving Renovation Fund for School Improvements.

The state program has a $1 million cap per school and the town of Machias agreed to borrow the additional $246,500 for the project

Sawyer said Phase I of the project was completed as of Sept. 9.

That part of the renovation included replacing carpeting and asbestos tile in the older section of the building and installing a new ventilation system and acoustical ceiling tiles.

The state identified Rose M. Gaffney as “a sick building” in 1996 after several parents removed their children from the school and staff members complained of headaches, nausea and breathing problems.

The school committee began replacing moldy carpets and defective ceiling tiles in a number of the classrooms in 1997, but held off on big-ticket items until the state loan funds became available.