Trowbridge School ordered to close temporarily to address lead hazards, students to relocate
The Milwaukee Health Department has ordered Trowbridge Street School of Great Lakes Studies to temporarily close starting Monday after finding 'unsafe lead dust levels' within the building, a department spokesperson confirmed Thursday night.
Students will be relocated to the Wisconsin Conservatory ofLifelong Learning, 1017 N. 12th St., while work to address the lead hazards is underway, according to a letter to staff and families.
The school was one of four Milwaukee Public Schools buildings this year where city health officials said students either had been or may have been poisoned by lead. No amount of lead is safe, especially for children.
The department has issued orders to address lead hazards at two schools — Golda Meir Lower Campus and Albert E. Kagel Dual Language School — but Trowbridge is the first ordered to close for such work.
Results of a lead risk assessment at Trowbridge and a fourth school, Maryland Avenue Montessori, have not yet been released. The Health Department is updating its website with documents from each school, including the assessments and orders.
Lead hazards were first identified at Golda Meir in January after a student was poisoned in the building. A 139-page report on the lead risks at Golda Meir noted chipping lead-based paint and lead dust had spread throughout four floors and common areas.
Lead-based paint was commonly used until 1978, when it was banned due to safety concerns.
The findings raised alarms for health officials about the quality of the district's ongoing maintenance and cleaning practices at buildings where the city's children spend hours every day.
Since then, the scale of the problem across MPS buildings has started to come into sharper focus.
Milwaukee schools officials last week told members of the city's Common Council that budget cuts and staffing shortages are straining the district's ability to keep up on building maintenance.
The Health Department's findings come despite an MPS Lead-Based Paint Compliance Program that requires the district to inspect and correct lead-based paint hazards every year.
Parents are encouraged to have their children tested for lead exposure.
This story will be updated.
Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Trowbridge School ordered to close temporarily to address lead hazards
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