Source:- WPR
Earlier this year, the City of Milwaukee worked hard to stabilize almost
100 public school buildings that were found to have lead paint hazards. This is
a big step forward in one of the city's most pressing public health issues.
City officials and Milwaukee Public Schools said that all of the schools that
were named have now been checked out and found to be safe for students and
staff.
The achievement comes after almost ten months of hard work to fix things and in
the middle of temporary problems with federal support that made the response
harder. Even though there were problems, the school district finished the
project before the December 31 deadline. This made families and teachers who
were worried about lead exposure feel better.
Milwaukee Public Schools dealt with lead risks in about seven million square
feet of school space, which included more than 2,700 classrooms and common
areas like hallways, cafeterias, and restrooms. Cleaning, painting, and sealing
surfaces in older buildings were all part of the job. Many of these buildings
were built before 1978, when lead-based paint was still allowed.
"This is a big step forward for the MPS community," said
Superintendent Brenda Cassellius in a statement. She said that students,
families, and staff have all had to deal with a lot of problems over the past
year. She also said that the hard work of everyone involved has made sure that
schools can move forward with confidence that the learning environments are
safe.
Most of the time, students were able to stay in the affected schools during
remediation. However, six schools had to close partially or move temporarily
because of high levels of contamination. Officials in the district stressed
that safety assessments were used to make decisions and that the goal was to
keep learning from being disrupted for as long as possible.
In January 2025, a student at Milwaukee Public Schools was found to have high
levels of lead in their blood, which was the first sign of the crisis. An
investigation found that the child probably got sick from breathing in paint
that was peeling off the walls in a basement bathroom at school. The discovery
led to more inspections throughout the district, which showed that 99 school
buildings had lead hazards.
Many of the schools that were affected had put off maintenance for years, which
made the paint more likely to chip and peel. In response, the district started
a districtwide remediation campaign, and the Milwaukee Health Department
stepped up its efforts to find other kids who might have been exposed to lead.
In early April, the city's response hit a big snag when federal support from
the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suddenly stopped. The CDC's
environmental health team that worked with Milwaukee was affected by large cuts
to the federal workforce, which made local officials unsure about getting more
technical help.
Health Commissioner Mike Totoraitis remembered getting a call saying that CDC
staff who were helping the city had been put on administrative leave and had limited
access to their work. During that time, requests for more emergency help, such
as a temporary deployment from the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service, were
turned down.
The federal team was put back in place in June, which let the CDC go back to
giving advice and helping the city improve its response. City officials said
that working together again helped improve monitoring and make sure that best
practices were followed during the last stage of remediation.
Milwaukee officials stressed that local teams kept going, even though there was
a break. Totoraitis said in a statement, "The City of Milwaukee Health
Department is proud to have gone above and beyond to protect the city's
children, and we will continue to do this work as long as it takes."
Advocates for public health say that finishing the cleanup effort is a big step
forward, but they also say that people need to stay alert for a long time. Many
of the district's buildings are still old, and they will need to be maintained
to avoid lead hazards in the future.
City and school leaders say that for now, the main goal is to bring back
stability and trust. Milwaukee officials hope that the experience will lead to
more investment in school infrastructure and child health protections across
the city now that inspections are done and schools are safe.
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