$43 Million Later, MPS Says Classrooms Are Safe From Lead Dust

Trowbridge School of Great Lake Studies is seen here on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Evan Casey/WPR

Since January, Milwaukee Public Schools has been managing a lead crisis that started with one child getting sick and snowballed into a multi-million dollar project to eliminate environmental dangers from nearly 100 schools.

On Wednesday, MPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius and City of Milwaukee officials announced the school district’s lead stabilization work is complete.

“MPS families and staff can be confident that our schools are safe places for teaching and learning,” Cassellius said during a press conference at Trowbridge Street School in Bay View, where students had to be relocated in March for lead removal. “We will remain vigilant to ensure that this cannot happen again.”

Parents and guardians at Golda Meir School, one of the district’s top-performing schools, were notified in January that a student had lead poisoning.

From there, further investigation revealed dangerous levels of lead contamination at multiple schools.

The problem forced the temporary shutdown of nine schools last school year.

In April, MPS released a lead action plan, which prioritized cleaning at 54 properties built before 1950.

The district has 106 schools that were built before 1978, when lead-based paint was banned. Lead dust is often formed as lead paint chips and wears down, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Teams from MPS and the City of Milwaukee completed lead stabilization work at 99 schools in 2,700 classrooms covering approximately 7 million square feet across the district.

Cassellius, who started her job as superintendent months earlier than expected to begin handling the lead crisis, said 39 school-based custodial positions have been added and training for custodial staff has been expanded.

Cassellius thanked parents for trusting the school district and holding it accountable.

“Your advocacy and your care throughout this experience are reminders of how Milwaukee shows up, how you care and how we do hard things when we’re all working together,” she said. “I offer our most sincere apology for the disruption and the anxiety this may have caused your family, and commit to doing all that we can to ensure that it just never happens again.”

Mayor Cavalier Johnson said protecting children’s health is not optional. He echoed Cassellius in saying families were affected by having to move schools and worrying their children had lead poisoning.

“It caused fear, it caused frustration and Milwaukee Public Schools families, they were right to demand better,” Johnson said. “And that’s exactly what we’re delivering for them, a better result.”

MPS originally planned to spend a total of about $25 million on lead remediation but the cost ballooned to $43 million given the scope of the issue.

Milwaukee Health Commissioner Michael Totoraitis said Wednesday he didn’t think nearly one year ago, he would finally see an end to the massive lead remediation project.

“This was an unprecedented situation for our city and, quite frankly, our country,” Totoraitis said. “It required an unprecedented response from our health department, and we met that challenge.”

Listen to the WPR report

Milwaukee Public Schools completes lead remediation work across district was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.