MILWAUKEE — New details continue to unfold from the Milwaukee Health Department (MHD) about lead investigations at Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS).
"How are you guys just now finding out? You should have done this in the summertime before these kids came into the school," MPS parent, Paradice Xiong said.
MHD said that during visual assessments this week, officials identified significant lead hazards at Starms Early Childhood Center, Fernwood Montessori School, and LaFollette School. As a result, all three schools will close starting Monday, March 17, to allow for necessary cleaning and remediation.
"We are very strained for resources," Tyler Weber with MHD said.
TMJ4’s Megan Lee asked Weber if he considers this a crisis.
“This keeps elevating to that level for us, and we're very nervous with the more schools we go into,” he said.
TMJ4 learned that the Environmental Protection Agency has joined the investigation efforts. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are assisting as well.
“They bring another perspective,” Weber stated. “More hands-on deck to help us, and then just a different body with a different group of experience and different authority for us to share ideas and challenges on how to navigate this together.”
Weber said having experts from other entities will help in the investigations.
"Schools are very large facilities. We are a program that is trained on residential properties. So we’re going into this a bit wide opened," Weber said.
MHD has identified seven schools within MPS that contain lead hazards and three students with elevated lead levels due to exposure at school.
“We’ve got buildings that are close to 100 years old, and we have thousands of students in these old schools, and it's going to keep happening,” spouse of an MPS teacher, Paul Smith said.
His wife works at Fernwood Montessori School, one of the schools that temporarily closed for lead hazard remediation.
I'm worried, we have an aging infrastructure here in Milwaukee,” Paul Smith said.
MHD and MPS are encouraging families to attend a free lead screening clinic from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 15 at Bradley Tech High School.
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