ADAMS TWP — Mars School District officials on Tuesday pledged to continue investigating a foul odor at Mars Elementary School until a source is found — but also voiced frustration with information about the issue not being reported to them.

During Tuesday’s school board meeting, several parents expressed their frustration with the situation. Resident Aaron McKinney asked Superintendent Wesley Shipley and board members about photographs of mold at the school that had been circulating online, and whether that issue had been investigated. He also said his daughter reported still smelling the odor Tuesday.

“There’s clearly something amiss when communications that we’re seeing are not lining up with the actual elements on the ground,” he said.

Shipley said he did not know about the photos of the mold until a parent showed them to him. At that point, he began investigating and found the spot in the penthouse, which is closed off from the rest of the building. He said crews determined that mold to be not active and not posing a threat or problem.

Other parents expressed frustration with the way the situation has been communicated to parents, which Shipley defended by saying he must investigate and confirm all issues as to not report inaccurate or dated information.

“I want to make sure that I’m getting accurate information that squelches rumors,” he said. “I’m not as fast as your children text, I’m not as fast as you folks are at communicating with one another.”

Shipley asked that any information parents hear or see about a potential situation be brought to him so that he may investigate it thoroughly instead of it being posted online, which can create anxiety and uncertainty in the community.

“Again, someone should have come forward and said, ‘Listen, this is what I found, this is where I found it, I think we need to address it,’ as opposed to spilling it out into the community and creating some uproar,” he said of the photos of mold. “That’s frustrating because rather than helping to take care of the situation, it exasperated the situation.”

As for the investigation, Shipley said officials first believed the smell to be bat guano similar to a previous issue. However, none was found, and officials instead located and removed wet insulation. Shipley said that caused the smell to go down, “considerably,” but there were still reports of a lingering odor, usually intermittently.

The air within the school was tested for mold, with initial reports indicating there were more spores outside of the building than in. With the smell still lingering, crews from Kress Construction, which is certified in the abatement of materials such as mold and organic waste, opened several wall panels and removed additional insulation in the areas where the smell was reported.

An abatement professional identified and also removed some old bat guano and all areas were cleaned.

As of Tuesday, Shipley said he had received no additional reports of a smell at the school, and additional air testing was done. The outcome of those tests will be shared as soon as they’re received, Shipley said, and officials from the inspection company are scheduled to attend next Tuesday’s board meeting to discuss the findings.

Dayle Ferguson, board president, said Shipley has done a good job of handling the situation and addressing the issues, and that he has invested a lot of time in finding solutions. She added that while the school has been found to be safe, the lingering smell will be addressed.

“The assurance is we will continue to find the source of the stink and we’ll continue until the stink is gone,” she said. “There’s a difference between ‘stink’ and ‘safe’ ... however, it is not a good learning environment, it is not a good teaching environment to be in the stink. We’re not going to stop until it’s gone.”