Suspected Mold Shuts Part of Garfield Ridge School, 600 Kids Rerouted

About 600 students at John H. Kinzie Elementary School on Chicago's Southwest Side started the new school year Monday without a normal classroom, after suspected mold was found inside limited areas of the building just days before the first bell. Rather than delay the start of instruction, the school moved its students into outdoor spaces and temporary setups inside the adjacent John F. Kennedy High School building while the affected areas remain closed off.

Kinzie sits at 5625 S. Mobile Ave. in the Garfield Ridge community, where it serves a predominantly Hispanic student body, according to Chicago Public Schools. Reports of peeling paint and possible mold inside limited parts of the school were flagged to administration earlier in August, and parents received their first notice about the issue on August 20, just four days before classes began, as reported by CBS News Chicago. Many parents said they were frustrated to learn of the problem so close to the start of the school year.

Testing Complete, But Results Still Withheld

Kinzie has completed mold testing inside the building, but as of Monday the school had not shared those results with families, per the same CBS Chicago report. District policy requires that once visible mold is identified, environmental specialists must isolate the affected areas, professionally clean or remove contaminated materials, and obtain independent air clearance results before students can return, with CPS citing adherence to federal and local environmental health standards. School officials have said classes for Kinzie students could be interrupted during the first full week of instruction as that process plays out.

The workaround has kept nearly 600 elementary students learning outdoors and inside classroom space borrowed from Kennedy High School, located next door at 6325 W. 56th St. The two campuses share more than just a fence line — the high school building originally opened in October 1963 as John H. Kinzie High School before being renamed John F. Kennedy High School in 1965, according to the Chicago Park District, with both buildings constructed on land acquired adjacent to Wentworth Park.

Specialized Programs Also Displaced

The disruption complicates more than a typical elementary schedule. Kinzie operates as an authorized International Baccalaureate World School for its 6th through 8th grade students and also houses a specialized district program serving deaf and hard-of-hearing students, according to Chicago Public Schools. Both programs are now navigating instruction from temporary space while the district works through its remediation and clearance process.

The closure fell on the very first day of the 2026–2027 school year. CPS officially opened the academic calendar for K-12 students on Monday, and the Board of Education had set 176 student attendance days for the year, as reported by Chalkbeat Chicago. That timing meant Kinzie's environmental issue collided directly with a day the district had spent months planning around.

A District Already Stretched Thin

The Kinzie situation lands against a backdrop of financial strain across CPS facilities. The district entered the 2025–2026 academic year facing a $734 million budget deficit, which led to reduced custodial staffing at buildings across the system, according to WGN-TV. That staffing crunch has been an ongoing concern for facility upkeep districtwide.

The Board of Education has taken some steps to address environmental hazards in its aging building stock. In June 2025, the board approved a Healthy Green Schools resolution that established dedicated funding for remediating mold, asbestos, and lead across district facilities. Late-summer mold problems are also not unique to Kinzie — school districts across the Chicago area and the wider Midwest regularly contend with mold accumulation driven by high humidity and idle air conditioning systems during the summer break, according to the Daily Herald, a pattern that tends to surface just as schools prepare to reopen for fall.

For now, families at Kinzie are left waiting on two fronts: for the school to release its completed mold test results, and for word on how much longer the outdoor and borrowed-classroom arrangement at Kennedy High School will continue.