Milwaukee announces additional school closures, new plan to address lead paint hazards as contamination crisis deepens

Milwaukee announced Monday the temporary closure of two more schools as the city works to address a lead crisis in its public schools.

Milwaukee will temporarily close two more school buildings as the city works to address a lead crisis in its public schools. The district also announced Monday an updated plan to tackle the flaking and chalking paint in aging buildings that’s suspected to be the cause of elevated blood lead levels in four students this school year. The new closures affect elementary schools Westside Academy and Brown Street School. Two other elementary schools remain closed: Starms Early Childhood Education Center and LaFollette School. In total, the Milwaukee school district has announced work at nine schools this year to address lead hazards. Students are being relocated while the work is underway. The city’s school district and health department are in the process of inspecting about 100 buildings that were built before 1978, the year lead was banned from paint. They expect the work to continue through the summer. Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said the district expected to clean 54 schools built before 1950 ahead of the next school year. An additional 52 schools built between 1950 and 1978 are slated to be cleaned before the end of the calendar year, she said. “We are asking families to remain vigilant and to please have their children tested for lead exposure,” either through their family doctor or through the pop-up clinics organized by the city, Cassellius said.