Hundreds of young students at Westwood Elementary in Friendswood, Texas, won't be starting their school year as planned after elevated mold levels turned up throughout the district's oldest campus. Friendswood ISD says it has no set date for reopening the Pre-K through second grade school, and the district has already postponed its Kinder Camp that was set for the week of August 3. Officials say remediation work must wrap up before Westwood can safely reopen, even as the rest of the district gears up to start classes districtwide on Tuesday, August 18.
What The Environmental Testing Found Inside Westwood
According to Click2Houston, the district hired a third-party environmental consultant in July to conduct air and surface testing inside the building. That testing did not identify the presence of black mold, but it did find elevated mold levels in both air and surface samples. Campus administrators separately reported increased moisture and additional visible surface mold in portions of the school.
Friendswood ISD partnered with Texas General Contractors to evaluate what was driving the moisture problem, and the review found that the campus's HVAC operation was insufficient to manage humidity over the summer. That evaluation determined that leaking from part of the HVAC system had saturated sections of the building's roof deck and let moisture infiltrate portions of the structure. As part of an expanded cleanup, Texas General Contractors also carried out a deep cleaning of the entire facility, including its fixed HVAC air duct systems, according to KHOU 11.
New HVAC Units And A Rebuilt Roof Before Reopening
Friendswood ISD has approved replacing the HVAC units tied to the moisture problem, with that work expected to begin within the next few weeks. The district has also signed off on replacing part of the roof over the affected areas and has expanded the overall scope of work to address both the immediate mold concerns and the underlying causes. No reopening date has been set for Westwood.
The scramble comes just three months after Friendswood ISD voters narrowly rejected Proposition B, a $40.6 million bond measure that would have funded a new replacement campus for Westwood, according to Reporter News. In the same May election, voters approved Proposition A, a $26 million measure for districtwide infrastructure and maintenance. It was the district's second bond attempt, after trustees trimmed the bond plan to $81.5 million amid a voter revolt in late 2025.
Friendswood's Oldest Campus, Built For Nearly Double Its Enrollment
Following the vote, Friendswood ISD leadership said Proposition A funds would be allocated in priority order to address critical lifecycle replacements and aging building systems across the district, according to a statement posted by Friendswood ISD. Westwood's HVAC failure and roof damage are now testing that plan just months after voters turned down the campus's rebuild.
Built in 1967, Westwood is Friendswood ISD's oldest elementary campus, now serving roughly 500 to 550 students in Pre-K through second grade, per Community Impact. The building was originally constructed to hold up to 900 students before enrollment declined as newer district campuses opened. Westwood is led by Principal Crystal Mille, who took over the campus in May 2025 after seven years in the district as an assistant principal, math coach, and teacher, per the outlet.
Friendswood ISD has replaced an aging primary school before. In August 2023, the district opened a $36 million new campus for C.W. Cline Elementary, funded through a 2020 bond that replaced a 1977 structure, as the Houston Chronicle reported. That project moved forward after the district determined comprehensive updates to the old building were economically unfeasible. No such determination has been made public for Westwood.
State Law Keeps Mold Testing And Cleanup Separate
Any mold cleanup in Texas is governed by strict rules. Under Texas Occupations Code Chapter 1958, state law bars the same company, or an affiliated one, from both assessing mold and performing the physical cleanup on the same project, a conflict-of-interest safeguard adopted after earlier environmental litigation in the state. That separation is why Friendswood ISD used an outside environmental consultant for testing while contracting the physical remediation work to Texas General Contractors.
The district's relationship with Texas General Contractors predates this crisis. Friendswood ISD's own check registers show the district paid the contractor more than $9,900 for roof repairs at a district property in August 2024, part of routine maintenance spending that also covered HVAC chillers and refrigerant replacements.
Budget Pressure And A Wider Pattern Of Summer HVAC Failures
The unplanned remediation lands on top of an already tight ledger. The district locked in a $70M budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year at about $70.06 million, with a preliminary tax rate of $1.027 per $100 of property valuation. How much of the emergency HVAC and roof work will draw from that budget, beyond what Proposition A already earmarked, remains unclear.
Friendswood ISD has acknowledged that the delay falls short of the community's expectation for safe learning environments. The district has said student and staff safety must come before any timeline, and it has committed to stronger monitoring, maintenance, and operational procedures going forward. Officials plan to issue another update on the situation Friday, August 7.
The mold crisis at Westwood follows a broader pattern of HVAC-driven moisture problems disrupting school calendars heading into the 2026-27 year. In Pennsylvania, Beaver County's mold nightmare forced a $15 million renovation at a special-needs school after faulty ventilation ruined classroom supplies just weeks before its planned reopening.
It remains unclear whether Westwood students would be temporarily reassigned to other Friendswood ISD campuses if remediation isn't finished by the time classes resume districtwide. The district also hasn't said how much of the unbudgeted cleanup and repair costs will ultimately be drawn from its operating budget. For now, families are waiting on Friday's update to learn whether Westwood will be ready in time.
