KINGSTON -- Crews are beginning the process to remove mold from the Wyoming Valley West Middle School in Luzerne County.
It looks as though students could be returning to full days there in the next couple of weeks.
School officials hope to reopen the middle school by Thanksgiving.
Wednesday night, the Wyoming Valley West School Board voted to hire a cleaning company from Dunmore.
Crews have been in and out of the Wyoming Valley West Middle School all day removing the mold.
Lunchtime gets hectic outside Paula Pardini's house near the Wyoming Valley West High school In Plymouth. It's the time when middle school students arrive for class and high school students leave school for the day.
"It's just complete chaos!" Pardini said. "They overrun this street, the people are like jamming into each other."
Those split schedules have been in place for almost three weeks but they could end soon.
School district officials hired a company from Dunmore to clean mold from the Wyoming Valley West Middle School in Kingston.
The cost is just over $61,000. Now district officials are confident they'll be able to reopen the middle school by Thanksgiving.
"I'm happy for the kids," Pardini added.
"This is her school, it's her senior year, and she should be able to finish out her high school years," said Sharleen Guariliahigh
School district officials are not yet saying what type of mold was found in the middle school over concerns about possible litigation, but for the first time, they tell Newswatch 16, they don't believe the mold found was harmful to students, and that's a big relief to many parents.
"Glad that the kids might be going back to the middle school," said Sheila Golightley. "They don't want to go back, but I think it's a good idea."
Wyoming Valley West officials say they will better maintain the ventilation system at the middle school. There was a problem with the system and that problem contributed to the mold that was found in the basement of the middle school. No mold was found in any other part of the building.