MTEA Statement on Lead Exposure in MPS Buildings

Over the past several weeks, multiple MPS buildings have had to temporarily relocate so that MPS could perform deferred maintenance to protect students and staff from hazardous lead exposure. MTEA President Ingrid Walker-Henry issued the following statement:

“Nearly two decades of severe, purposeful underfunding of public schools at the state level has left school leaders to decide between maintaining facilities or hiring much needed staff to support students in classrooms. It is a choice they shouldn’t have to make, and the state needs to do its part and pass Governor Evers’ budget proposal that would increase the reimbursement rate for public schools’ special education costs from a meager 30% to 60%. While it would remain a disservice to our state that tax-funded unaccountable, private voucher schools are reimbursed at 90-100% for providing the same services, this increase would allow public schools the flexibility to perform necessary maintenance while upholding our commitment to students with special needs, and without laying off the staff all of our students depend on.

“While we wait for the state legislature to uphold its moral and constitutional obligation to our public schools, we are eager to work with Superintendent Cassellius and advocacy groups like Coalition on Lead Emergency and Lead Safe Schools MKE around lead stabilization.

“We need to see leadership from the city, who owns MPS buildings. Milwaukee children and workers deserve a coalition of community leaders who will work together to fix the problem now and lay out a plan – with funding – for ongoing maintenance to prevent lead exposure in MPS buildings. The mayor and common council recently mandated a new 2% sales tax on Milwaukee that is bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars per year. There should be a conversation about using a portion of those funds to maintain and improve the public school facilities owned by the city and accelerate the replacement of lead pipes to ensure safe drinking water for students now and for generations to come.”

MTEA has prepared a list of several potential actions the district should take concerning lead dust exposure and lead in drinking water that we intend to meet and confer with MPS Administration over. These measures would benefit MPS students and workers. This is not an exhaustive list, but a starting point. MTEA is also demanding a detailed policy from MPS on how work orders are handled. We want to meet and confer with MPS Administration to develop detailed policies and procedures around the assignment and triage of work orders.

Lead Dust Exposure:

• MPS should renew its Lead-Safe certification to adequately address hazards. The city’s letter to MPS asserts that the district’s certification as a lead-safe company expired at the end of 2022. The school facilities team must be adequately staffed.
• MPS must avoid lead abatement methods that produce large amounts of lead dust such as torch burning, dry manual scraping and conventional power tools. Instead, use vacuum power tools and wet methods. The EPA has numerous resources on this issue.
• MPS should provide MTEA with maintenance records to verify the timeline and details of current, completed and future projects.
• Dust testing should be done after areas are remediated to ensure that the control measures were effective in lowering exposure. A plan for routine testing should be developed.
• School staff who are more likely to be exposed to lead dust, such as Building Service Helpers and Engineers, should get a blood test. Pregnant staff should also be included along with any male or female staff considering having children.
• MPS should ensure personal exposure monitoring for Building Service Helpers and Engineers and provide a copy of results and reports based on exposure monitoring.

Lead in School Drinking Water:

• The MPS website states that all MPS drinking fountains use filtration systems that are tested and certified to reduce harmful contaminants. MPS should also ensure all water sources used in cooking and food preparation also utilize filtration systems.
• MPS should adopt a health-based limit. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a standard of less than 1 part per billion. The EPA standard, which was recently reduced from 15 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion, does not provide adequate protection.
• The MPS website states that “all MPS drinking water filters are replaced at least yearly, regardless of usage.” MPS should provide routine maintenance records and verify how frequently filters are changed. Filter manufacturer recommendations should be checked to verify if an annual filter change is adequate.
• MPS should disclose all available information about lead in water infrastructure, test results and remediation plans/progress both onsite and online.
• MPS should manually flush each building at the start of every school day as another method of reducing lead levels to the health-based limit of less than 1 part per billion. The type of flushing (individual or main) would be based on each school’s specific lead water testing results.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.

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