Milwaukee clears its public schools of lead-based paint risks after 10 months of work

The metropolis of Milwaukee says it has finalized its efforts to stabilize practically 100 public schools that had been recognized as having lead paint hazards earlier this 12 months.

The milestone comes regardless of the city losing federal support from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in April because of broad cuts within the federal workforce. The CDC program supporting the Milwaukee Health Department by means of the lead disaster was reinstated in June and has been in a position to reengage with town.

All of the schools recognized as having issues have been inspected and deemed secure, in response to Milwaukee Public Schools.

The district completed about 10 months of work to refurbish its schools roughly two weeks forward of a Dec. 31 deadline. Teams addressed roughly 7 million sq. ft in schools throughout the district, together with 2,700 lecture rooms plus frequent areas.

“This is an important milestone for the MPS community,” MPS Superintendent Brenda Cassellius mentioned in a information launch. “We have asked so much of our students, families, and staff over the past 10 months as we addressed this issue with the urgency it required … because of the hard work of so many dedicated teams in our district – we can move forward with the peace of mind that our schools are safe.”

In whole, MPS needed to quickly relocate college students or shut elements of six schools as a result of of the extent of lead contamination in these buildings. Students had been allowed to stay within the 90-plus different schools whereas the work continued.

In January 2025, an MPS scholar was identified with elevated ranges of lead of their blood. A subsequent investigation decided the kid was probably uncovered to guide by means of flaking paint in a basement lavatory of their college constructing.

Additional inspections decided lead hazards had been current in 99 schools constructed earlier than 1978, when it was nonetheless authorized to make use of lead in paint. Many of these buildings had not been properly maintained.

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The district started intensive efforts to scrub and repaint these schools, whereas town’s well being division ramped up efforts to display different college students for lead poisoning.

On Tuesday, April 1, town’s well being commissioner, Mike Totoriaitis, received a jarring e mail.

The environmental well being group he had been working with on the CDC had been minimize, swept up in an enormous layoff of federal well being employees, impacting total divisions of some companies. Many workers had been instantly positioned on administrative depart and had been now not in a position to entry their work.

“They were able to send a last email giving us new points of contact, but the new points of contact were essentially unable to say what level of support they would provide us moving forward,” Totoraitis mentioned on the time.

Totoraitis had additionally utilized for Epi-Aid, a short-term mortgage of an officer from the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, or EIS. That request was additionally denied.

The CDC group was ultimately reinstated in June and was in a position to start working with town once more.

“The City of Milwaukee Health Department is proud to have gone above and beyond to protect the city’s children, and we remain committed to this work as long as it takes,” Totoraitis mentioned in a information launch.

MPS says it has employed new employees and has new processes in place to safeguard schools in opposition to widespread lead contamination going ahead. District enhancements embody:

The metropolis mentioned it spent at the very least $43 million on the lead abatement.