Penn Kidder Campus students will temporarily attend classes at other schools after the Jim Thorpe Area School District extended the closure of the building through Oct. 10 due to ongoing air quality issues.

Students in grades K-5 will attend classes at the LB Morris campus, and students in grades 6-8 will report to Jim Thorpe Area High School, the district said in a message to parents. Each group will remain with their regular teachers in separate spaces.

Acting Superintendent Thomas Lesisko said in an email that another round of air testing is needed.

“Some of our rooms tested above our threshold and PK will remain closed for another week,” Lesisko wrote. “We want kids back in person. Penn Kidder K-5 will attend the LB Morris and PK 6-8 will attend the high school. Each will maintain their own teachers in separate spaces. Transportation and lunches will be the same.”

Air-purifying systems, district officials said, will continue to run inside the building while testing is conducted again.

“The testing process takes one week to complete before we receive the results,” the message to parents stated.

Students in K-5 will ride their usual buses or vans to the LB Morris campus. Pick-up times will remain the same, but drop-off times will be about 30 minutes later. Additional details regarding schedules, transportation and logistics were to be emailed to families.

“These are very challenging times as we work to make the Penn Kidder Campus building safe for our students and staff,” the message to parents stated. “We appreciate your sacrifices, cooperation and dedication to your student’s success.”

The extended closure stems from a situation that began Sept. 24, when staff detected a strong mothball odor in a hallway. The smell traveled through the ventilation system into multiple classrooms, which led to an early dismissal.

“We quickly discussed the situation and determined we needed to get the kids out of the building,” Lesisko said at the time. “The smell was not something we were used to, and mothballs certainly are not healthy. The safety of our students and staff was critical.”

Lesisko said mothballs had been placed near a ventilation system by an individual attempting to address a rodent problem.

“We believe this was done with good intention,” he said, “but once the fans started picking up some of the released odor, it spread.”

The district had dealt with a rodent issue over the summer, which led to treatment by Ehrlich Pest Control.

“Traps were put outside the building,” Lesisko said. “Nobody has seen mice in the building. There were some droppings and that is where this individual decided to put the moth balls.”

Environmental testing began the Monday after the incident using specialized air sampling vessels.

“That takes about eight hours because the vessels they use sit in different locations,” Lesisko said. “Normally for an area this size they would use three vessels, but because there are volatile chemicals involved they are using 10 to make sure there are no mistakes.”

The samples were sent to a lab in Lancaster that is working with a facility in Louisiana.

“It’s a very unique situation,” he said. “If it were something simple like black mold, there’s a straightforward test. This is much more complicated.”

Last week, the district extended the closure through the end of the week as testing continued. Students switched to virtual learning for Thursday and Friday. The district collected and cleaned iPads, which were distributed Wednesday and Thursday. Lessons were delivered in the same manner as a flexible instruction day, without live instruction.