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Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Milwaukee lead poisoning concerns in schools; new screening options
The Brief Milwaukee Public Schools and the Milwaukee Health Department are offering new lead screening options to students. The next screening option happens on Wednesday, May 7 at North Division High School. To date, lead cleaning work in MPS has already cost the district roughly $2 million. MILWAUKEE - More lead screenings are underway in Milwaukee. It is an effort to get as many Milwaukee Public Schools students checked for lead. More lead screenings What we know The tables are set inside North Division High School cafeteria. They are ready to receive Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) students on Wednesday, May 7. FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX LOCAL Mobile app for iOS or Android A lead screening clinic will be held. Officials said they have the capacity to provide screenings for 300 students. The screening comes as MPS tackles the ongoing lead crisis at the district's schools. Most recently Westside Academy was added to the list of schools closed. Later in May, Brown Street Academy will be added to the list of of schools that will be shut down for cleaning. What they're saying "With the contractors that they are bringing on board, it's becoming more systematic, and we believe they will be able to scale up and do work more quickly. So we hope to see progress more swiftly and urgently," said Tyler Weber, Milwaukee Deputy Commissioner of Environmental Health. Weber said MPS is working with the Wisconsin health department after the CDC denied a request for help. Tyler Weber "It would've been significantly helpful if we had the team or a handful a team from the CDC to help us. We can still work with the state, but we are having to make a lot of decisions on our own that are new to us," Weber said. The screening process Dig deeper During a walk-through on Tuesday, May 6, FOX6 News was able to get a look at the lead kits that will be used for screening. The Milwaukee Health Department says the screening process will involve registration, testing and education. "The most important piece besides remediating the lead hazards as best we can as quickly as we can is getting everyone tested," Weber said. What's next As of May 6, MPS officials said a total of six schools have been closed. The plan is to inspect about 100 buildings that were built before 1978 – all before the end of 2025. SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News To date, lead cleaning work has already cost the district roughly $2 million. The Source The information in this post was provided by Milwaukee Public Schools and the Milwaukee Health Department.
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Milwaukee lead screening clinic for MPS students on Wednesday
The Brief The Milwaukee Health Department is holding a large lead screening clinic for MPS students on Wednesday, May 7. Milwaukee's request for CDC assistance in scaling up lead screening and prioritizing schools was previously denied. The health department is now relying on support and guidance from the state and then making its own decisions. MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee Health Department will hold a large lead screening clinic on Wednesday, May 7. It's an effort to test Milwaukee Public Schools kids as the district deals with lead crises in some schools. "We want CDC team members physically on the ground to work with us on how do we scale our lead screening? How do we prioritize the right schools?" said Tyler Weber with the Milwaukee Health Department. FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX LOCAL Mobile app for iOS or Android The backstory That help isn't coming. In April, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention denied Milwaukee's request for help with lead dangers in public schools. "They wouldn't have brought funding, but they would have brought this national expertise to guide us, to support us, and also have this national perspective," added Weber. Big picture view Now, Weber's team is pivoting. "We have regular set meetings, we do talk to the state, so the state is offering support, guidance, and expertise. And then we just make the decisions," said Weber. This week, Milwaukee Public Schools released new images of the crisis, showing chipping and peeling lead paint. The district said it plans to assess nearly 100 aging buildings by the end of the year, and much of that work will happen over the summer. "The biggest concern for me is, OK, we have identified a school that needs work, but it can't happen until the summer. What is happening with those children? And this is why the next big critical step is lead screening," said Weber. What's next On May 7, Milwaukee health leaders will hold a lead screening clinic inside North Division High School. It follows the announcement of the upcoming closures of Westside Academy and Brown Street Academy because of lead exposure. Parents are concerned, knowing that lead can cause brain and nerve damage. "I really didn't think that they were going to close down this one. Such a great school," said Lynnette Mahnke. SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News Weber said there's no playbook for dealing with this crisis, but there is a lead action plan leaders are using to help keep kids safe. "We're putting a lot of resources within the health department to get a grasp on what the situation is and provide transparent information," said Weber. What you can do Wednesday's clinic starts at 2:30 p.m. And runs until 6:30 p.m. It's open to all MPS students. Families are encouraged to get there early to ensure they're seen. The Source This story was produced by FOX6, with information sourced from Milwaukee Public Schools and the Milwaukee Health Department.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
4th MPS student possibly lead poisoned at school; report on Golda Meir released
At least two — and potentially as many as four — Milwaukee Public Schools students have been poisoned by lead at school, city health officials said Tuesday. The news that a student may have been lead poisoned at a fourth school, Trowbridge Street School of Great Lakes Studies, comes as the City Health Department released a 139-page report on the lead risks at Golda Meir Lower Campus where the first case was identified. That report noted chipping lead-based paint and lead dust had spread throughout four floors and common areas of Golda Meir, raising 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. "You don't have to be a lead risk assessor to go in and see that there's deteriorated paint, that there's paint chips on the walls," said Tyler Weber, the department's deputy commissioner for environmental health. No amount of lead is safe, especially for children. 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. A district spokesperson did not respond when asked Monday for the most recent date that Golda Meir and two other schools were last inspected for lead hazards. In a statement, MPS said it is working with the Health Department to remedy the situation and "remains committed to maintaining safe environments for our students and staff." Lead paint- and dust-related hazards appear widespread at Golda Meir, which was built in 1890. Lead was found on the ground floor boy's bathroom, cafeteria, hallway, teacher's lounge, kitchen areas and several rooms on the first, second and third floors, among other areas, the report said. The release of the lead risk assessment comes days after the Health Department sent a letter to the school district warning that dangerous levels of lead contamination had been found in "multiple" MPS buildings, including Golda Meir. MPS must take specific steps to avoid putting children at "serious risk of lead poisoning, developmental delays, and other possible health complications," Health Commissioner Michael Totoraitis' letter said. "The lead degradation that is present in the schools isn't something that happened overnight," Totoraitis said Tuesday. "There's definitely a lot of contributing factors that have led us to this point." More than 150 images included in the report show peeling paint throughout the school building: on doors, walls, trim, stairs, ductwork, cabinets and more. It's not realistic to fully remove lead from a building, meaning continued monitoring of painted surfaces in any building before 1978 is "critical," Weber said. Lead-based paint was commonly used until 1978, when it was banned due to safety concerns. "The concern is that this work wasn't maintained on the front end," Weber said. Samples from dust wipes showed the district was not using the proper cleaning practices to remove lead hazards, Weber said. Weber said the Golda Meir project was likely the biggest lead risk inspection the department has ever conducted. It required about 140 dust wipe samples, the number the city's lab can process in one week. Eight lead risk assessors spent six hours document lead hazards in the school, he said. "It's hard to get this level of lead and dust wipe samples if you have good lead safety practices," Weber said. The average level of lead hazards found on third-floor windowsills was 16 times higher than permitted, the report found. Page 1 of Golda Meir -Consolidated RIsk Assessment Report Copy final Contributed to DocumentCloud by Alison Dirr (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) • View document or read text The Health Department identified lead-based paint hazards in MPS schools as the result of investigations into poisoning of individual children. In the letter last week, the department said it found lead hazards in Golda Meir, Albert E. Kagel Dual Language School, and potentially at Maryland Avenue Montessori. The department's typical protocol is to look for lead hazards at the child's primary and secondary residences before moving to other locations the child frequents. Milwaukee sees more than 1,000 children poisoned by lead each year, Weber said, most of them between the ages of 1 and 3 years old. Even without investigating MPS schools, the Health Department was already at capacity for the number of children whose cases it is able to individually investigate, he said. "There's a really important debate within the Common Council, the Mayor's Office, with the city, about what we can do to get ahead of this," Weber said. "We're just trying to keep up with what we have." Additional lead risk assessments at the other schools will be released as they become available. The Health Department is compiling documents from lead investigations at Milwaukee Public Schools on its website. Under the district's own plan, every year the MPS building engineer must inspect its facilities for deterioration of lead-based paint. Any deteriorating paint must be noted by the engineer and forwarded to the district's paint shop supervisor, who is responsible for implementing "corrective action," according to guidelines for MPS' Lead Exposure Control Program. MPS did not respond when asked for the date of the last inspection of Golda Meir, Kagel or Maryland Avenue. Related to MPS' lead paint plan, Totoraitis said Friday the Health Department is working with MPS and the state to "ensure that any edits, any revisions to that plan are enhanced so that we don't find ourselves in this situation again." The Milwaukee Health Department does not regularly inspect school buildings for lead. The purpose of the district's lead-based paint renovation program is to "maintain paint that contains lead in a manner that will protect the building occupants from exposure to lead-containing dust to abide by all applicable Federal, State, and local regulations with respect to lead-based paint," the document states. Golda Meir is safe for children to occupy — as long as MPS adheres to Health Department orders, Totoraitis said. Weber said although the district has been cleaning, there are still safety concerns identified in the letter last week. That's why parents and staff also received an advisory regarding cleaning practices and additional steps they can take. So far, MPS has been responsive to the Health Department's concerns at the schools the department is monitoring, Weber said. He said the district immediately completed renovation work in the area where the child had been lead poisoned at Golda Meir. The district has told the Health Department that this week a company is conducting a deep cleaning of Golda Meir, Weber said. He did not immediately know what was taking place at Kagel. The Health Department will return to Golda Meir on Friday to conduct followup testing and monitor MPS's progress. The department has also been working with the state Department of Health Services and the Office of the City Attorney to better understand the Health Department's authority to close schools with this hazard, Weber said. Moving forward, "there's a need for MPS to get a grasp on what may or may not be happening in their other schools," Weber said. This story will be updated. Cleo Krejci covers K-12 education and workforce development as a Report For America corps member based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at CKrejci@ or follow her on Twitter @_CleoKrejci. For more information about Report for America, visit Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@ This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Health Department: 4th MPS student possibly lead poisoned at school
