KEYSTONE HEIGHTS, Fla. -- Clay County school leaders recently began taking steps to protect the health of hundreds of elementary school students.

On Tuesday, workers wearing environmental protective suits and ventilators were removing potentially hazardous walls from Keystone Elementary School.

The school said the walls contain non-friable asbestos.

"We're removing some transite-paneled walls and replacing those with concrete-block walls and new doors," said Ross Tholand, of Clay County Schools.

Transite is an asbestos material.

Tholand said years ago all friable, or harmful asbestos material, was removed from schools and structures around Clay County. He also said there were annual inspections of the non-friable materials that remained in place.

"These are perfectly harmless as long as you don’t take a sand belt and sander to them or drill into them and create a dust. If you create a dust, then you have a friable product, and that's a little different," said Tholand.

He said there were no such issues with the being removed, telling Channel 4 that the school had a plan in place to remove the walls years ago and finally got the necessary funding.

When asked why new schools, like Oak Leaf and Fleming Island, were built before a potentially harmful situation at an existing school was taken care of, Tholand said the new-construction funds are separate from maintenance funds.

"We in the maintenance department get state funding for special maintenance needs, which this is a special maintenance need. There are two pots and the money has to be used in two different manners," Tholand said.

Parents with students at Keystone Elementary School said they're happy to know there would be no health concerns in the fall.

"I'm glad to know that they're removing it now and we won't have to worry about it in the future," said one mother.

All of the potentially harmful materials are expected to be off the campus by Wednesday. The entire project is expected to be complete within 30 days.