Barack Obama Elementary School Closed Due To Extreme Mold, Unsanitary Conditions

Students at Barack Obama Elementary in Richmond, Virginia, are stuck at home after another round of mold was discovered inside the troubled building, which had also been hit with reports of rodents just days earlier.

Teachers preparing classrooms Monday found “additional areas of mold growth,” blowing up plans to reopen the school Tuesday following an initial delay.

The latest coverage has largely focused on the mold while leaving out another stomach-turning detail: Richmond Public Schools acknowledged last week that rodents had been spotted in several rooms. The district said at the time that an exterminator would address the problem.

Parents are now demanding answers about how the mold and rodents went undetected until the eve of the new school year.

“[We’re] really just demanding some accountability and transparency and a real, true plan to get our children back into school in a safe way,” one parent told 8News.

Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras laid out two possible paths during a town hall Monday evening: Keep students home while Barack Obama Elementary undergoes remediation or temporarily relocate them to Clark Springs Elementary School.

‘Barack Obama Elementary School’ in Richmond, VA is shut down for the start of the school year due to extreme mold growth and unsanitary conditions.

You can’t make this up. pic.twitter.com/fBgBbN2T47

— johnny maga (@johnnymaga) August 25, 2026

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Kamras ultimately rejected an immediate move, arguing that uprooting the school could create more disruption if tests soon show the Obama Elementary building is safe.

“I think it would be unfair to the team at Obama to ask them to move everything, set up their classes, start at Clark Springs and then two weeks later come back to Obama,” he said.

The district will instead clean and test every room at Barack Obama Elementary, though Kamras warned that the process might not produce an all-clear within a week.

“There is a chance that we do all the remediation over the next couple of days and that we test every single room, and there may still be some rooms with slightly elevated levels,” Kamras said. “That is a very real possibility, just given the nature of the building.”

The mold problem has been tied to an HVAC outage that allowed growth in the basement and on furniture. Subsequent reports found mold on computers and music equipment, raising further questions about the scope of the contamination.

Parents pressed Kamras over transportation, childcare and whether Clark Springs itself has been tested and cleared.

“What’s the timeline and what’s the plan for parents that are really struggling here?” one parent asked.

Kamras said the district will work with the YMCA and Richmond Parks and Recreation to explore childcare assistance for families while Barack Obama Elementary remains closed.

But parents repeatedly returned to the district’s earlier assurances that the building would be safe, only for employees to uncover more mold while setting up classrooms.

“What will the procedure be like moving forward to ensure that the school is safe? Because it wasn’t after we were told that it was,” one parent asked Kamras during the meeting.

Kamras pledged to send parents and staff two updates each day as the cleanup continues. He also said the district plans to conduct monthly testing throughout the school year once children are allowed back inside.

RPS will meanwhile begin preliminary mold testing at Clark Springs Elementary and stage furniture there in case officials are forced to relocate students and employees.

Until then, families at Obama Elementary have no firm first-day date as the district scrambles to clear a building plagued by mold and recently reported rodents.

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