Nearly four months after discovering a major mold problem at the Cecil S. Collins School, district officials have announced that the elementary school will reopen next week.

The more than 300 students who have been attending classes at the township's middle school and three other elementary schools will return to Collins Monday, Jan. 23, officials announced in a press release Tuesday. 

From 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2, the school will hold a "Return to the Nest" re-opening event, allwoing students, families and community members to tour the newly renovated school.

Also coming up is a yet unscheduled information night hosted by the district, where the Barnegat Board of Education will share information about permanent measures taken to keep the mold problem from recurring. 

The contamination was discovered at Collins Labor Day weekend, just before the start of the 2011-12 school year. The potentially dangerous levels of mold, likely caused, officials said, by incomplete dehumidification, drove the district to close the school and disperse students and staff to Barnegat's other schools.

The process of cleaning the mold, fixing a faulty roof and stripping, reflooring and repainting rooms stretched on through the first half of the school year before the school was declared mold-free in November. At last reporting, the total cost of the remediation topped $700,000, to be paid out of the district's maintenance reserve account.