(The Center Square) – It is shaping up to be a busy summer in some of Milwaukee’s oldest school buildings.
Milwaukee Public School’s new Lead Action Plan states the district will try and at least touch-up the lead paint at all schools built before 1978 for before school starts in September.
“The district will identify high priority schools, with the goal of completing lead remediation at these schools before the start of the 2025-26 school year,” the plan states. “Some schools, based on inspection and priority, will be completed before the end of the current school year.”
MPS released its action plan the same day it closed two more schools.
That means Milwaukee has four schools closed because of dangerously high lead levels. A fifth school just reopened Friday after about a month of cleanup.
MPS’ Lead Action Plan also lays out the process for closing schools in the future.
“For a full school building closure: This action will be taken when visual inspection checklists indicate that more than 50% of painted surfaces or greater than 50% of the rooms [test positive for elevated lead levels],” the plan notes. “For a partial school-building closure: This action will be taken when visual inspection checklists indicate that between 10% and 50% of painted surfaces are deteriorated.”
In both cases, students and teachers will be sent to lead-free, or less-leaded classrooms.
MPS figures it has a little more than 100 school buildings that were built before 1978, including 54 schools built before 1950, and 52 schools built between 1950 and 1978. MPS has said it hopes to clear all 106 schools by the end of the calendar year.
MPS is also planning to hire a lead-risk assessor and a field inspector to help track MPS’ lead problems. The district, however, will have to rely on outside cleaning and painting crews for almost all of the work.
There’s no price tag either for the two new district hires, or the third-party companies.
To date, MPS said it has spent $2 million on lead clean up and painting.
