MILWAUKEE — Parents at Trowbridge Street Elementary awaited an update Friday on when students could return after the school closed last week due to unsafe lead levels.
Friday evening, the district announced the school would stay closed Monday for more deep cleaning.
At a Friday press conference, Milwaukee Health Department and MPS officials said a recent lead risk assessment found 55 samples passed, but five still failed.
Earlier Friday, the Health Department told TMJ4 News that MPS could reopen the school Monday if those five areas were sealed off. The school district said it was determining whether to bring students back then or wait until the school is fully ready to avoid additional disruptions.
"Our plan is to make sure that we communicate to our parents either by the end of today or throughout the weekend," said Michael Harris, interim chief school administration officer for Milwaukee Public Schools.
After the additional deep cleaning, MHD will reassess the school to determine whether lead dust levels meet safety standards, according to the release.
Parents say safety needs to remain the top priority during the process to stabilize Trowbridge Street School.
"I'm glad that when they found out about it, they moved fast to get them out of there," said Valerie Simmons, a mom who spoke with TMJ4 News while picking up her daughter from school Friday. Trowbridge students are attending classes at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Lifelong Learning until their school building is safe to attend again.
Results of the retesting are expected by midweek.
The district said that if the school meets all clearance requirements, students and staff could return as soon as Friday, March 14, and that they will provide a reopening date once results are available.
In the meantime, parents are facing the challenge of students attending classes at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Lifelong Learning, nearly five miles from their original school building.
"I feel OK with it. I am a little disappointed that this had to happen in the first place, but I think they handled the transition well," said Simmons. She said the district should take its time and make sure the building is fully safe before bringing students back to Trowbridge Street School.
Watch: MPS lead levels: Families await Trowbridge Elementary reopening update
"However long it takes for them to really fix the issue that they have," she said. Trowbridge is one of four schools being monitored because of concerns over potentially unsafe levels of lead.
MPS and the Milwaukee Health Department have announced a lead screening clinic for students of those schools, which include Trowbridge Street School, Golda Meir's lower campus, Maryland Avenue Montessori School, and Kagel Elementary School.
The clinic will be held on March 15 at Bradley Tech High School from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
To learn more about that lead screening clinic and other clinics being held by several community partners, you can click HEREto find details on the City of Milwaukee's Health Department's website.
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