MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Health Department (MHD) will have to continue its lead investigation and clean-up at Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) without the help of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
MHD requested help from the CDC’s lead poisoning experts at the end of March, after it found dangerous lead levels at seven MPS schools.
According to MHD, at least three students tested positive for lead poisoning; all were tied to MPS campuses.
MHD was hoping CDC experts would have helped process lead screening results quicker, too.
Mike Totoraitis, the commissioner of health for the City of Milwaukee, said he was in shock when he read the rejection letter from the CDC.
“We were meeting internally to continue planning on the MPS response, and to see that all our partners at the CDC had been let go was difficult,” Totoraitis said. “Given the lead hazards in our city that exist in over 80% of our residential properties, we really wanted to make a pragmatic plan to approach each of the children that tested with an elevated level of lead poisoning, and quickly discern is it from the home or the school — or a combination of both — which would make it even more complicated, so the CDC was going to help us look at that data.”
Three of the seven MPS schools that were found to have lead dangers are still closed for clean-up. Those schools are Fernwood Montessori, Starms Early Childhood Center and LaFollette School. It’s been a month since they first shut down.
Students who attend those three schools have been temporarily moved to other schools, but families have been given no timeline as to when the students can return to their schools.
Totoraitis said the lead remediation is furthest along at Fernwood.
“Just the level of repair that had to happen. It was significantly worse off than they had anticipated,” Totoraitis said. “So we are ready to go once they give us the green light to do the clearance testing. Our team is ready on standby to do the processing of samples, so we really want to get the kids back in school once it is safe.”
He said MHD is hoping to schedule another large-scale lead screening clinic in early May.
Totoraitis also indicated more time is needed before MPS’s Lead Action Plan is released publicly, detailing how it will tackle the lead investigation moving forward. MPS leaders have not explained how they will pay for this large-scale lead remediation.
