During a field trip Monday, Foothill English teacher and AVID advisor Jason Dinkler received a phone call informing him that mold had been found in his classroom, and it was being temporarily shut down.

“I could tell they didn’t mean the scientific good kind,” Dinkler said, who was leading the AVID field trip to California State University Long Beach.

The mold was discovered by Laurie Winfield, president of Foothill’s Parent Faculty Student Organization, who was substituting for Dinkler at the time.

“The mold found was contained to a single cabinet, just like mold you may occasionally find at home when something has spilled or leaked,” Winfield told the Dragon Press in an email. “However, the office was immediately called and an assessment for the clean up was done immediately, as well.”

Dinkler believes that the mold began growing after some soda exploded in the cabinet over the summer.

Though there were rumors that the mold was black mold, which can sometimes be dangerous, Principal Joe Bova said that there is nothing to be worried about.

“As far as I know, it is not black mold,” Bova said. “Based on the evaluation by the district, we don’t believe it actually is a health hazard.”

Despite this, the district’s risk manager director Eric Reynolds advised the school to quarantine the classroom as a precaution.

Leaving his own room locked and empty, Dinkler held his classes in Intermediate Algebra teacher Jennifer Eggertsen’s classroom Tuesday.

If environmental contract agency workers are able to remove and replace the cabinet tomorrow, Dinkler will probably be able to move back into his room on Thursday, Bova said.

Freshman Kazu Koba, who has Dinkler as a FIRE advisor, thought it was “creepy” that mold was able to grow in the classroom without being noticed.

However, neither Koba nor Ayla McNeil, another freshman in Dinkler’s FIRE class, felt like the different class location had disrupted their day.

“I’m just embarrassed that it happened in my classroom,” Dinkler added.