(The Center Square) – There continues to be a lot of discussion around Milwaukee Public Schools’ lead paint cleanup, even though little of it is about the actual cleanup.
The city’s school district has not said when it expects to have seven schools with dangerously high lead levels cleaned, or when it expects to test the rest of its students for lead poisoning.
Gov. Tony Evers last week ordered MPS to do more to clean up the lead that has closed several schools.
This week, two parent groups suggested that MPS sue the makers of lead paint that is still in the city’s schools.
“As the district begins to weigh the costs of remediation of this highly toxic hazard harming the health and well-being of MPS students, teachers and staff, we agree efforts must be made to find revenue to cover the costs of this daunting endeavor,” Lead-Safe Schools MKE and Get The Lead Out Coalition said in a statement.
Lead-based paints have been banned in the United States since 1978, but many of Milwaukee’s schools were built before that ban went into effect.
MPS has not said how many schools have lead paint, or how many kids have been exposed to the chips or dust that comes from lead paint.
Parents, though, could get a bit more information about the work to replace that lead paint.
MPS School Board members Missy Zombor and Megan O’Halloran are planning to introduce a proposal at Thursday’s school board meeting to create a public portal to track work orders at Milwaukee schools.
“We have heard loud and clear from…parents that they were very concerned with the work that was being done and how we are going to ensure there is strong oversight,” O’Halloran told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The public portal would track the “quantity of work orders” for lead paint complaints. Parents and the public could also see the response times to deal with those orders.
MPS’ superintendent is not saying just how long it could take to clean the lead paint from all of the city’s schools. She’s also not saying how long it will take to clean the lead paint out of the seven schools that have been flagged for dangerously high lead levels.
Milwaukee’s health department said this week there could be lead paint in as many as 100 MPS buildings.
The health department has also warned in the past it may need to test as many as 10,000 MPS students for lead poisoning.
