MILWAUKEE — The City of Milwaukee Health Department has given Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) the clearance to reopen Trowbridge School.
However, it can only reopen under the conditions that they close off the five rooms that have still been deemed unsafe. The school has been closed since Monday, March 3 due to unsafe lead levels.
Following the closure, 60 samples were collected from Trowbridge. Their lead risk assessment revealed that five of those samples showed unsafe lead levels.
MPS Interim Chief Administration Officer Michael Harris said Trowbridge School students have been attending class at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Lifelong Learning.
“That transition has gone really well,” said Harris. “We really want to thank our community for stepping up and supporting the work that we are doing in our schools to ensure students and staff are safe. Our staff has been working really hard at Trowbridge to ensure that the school is ready to welcome students back.”
The city health department and MPS held a joint press conference to share updates on that and other parts of their lead investigation.
Since their lead investigation began in November, five MPS students have tested positive for lead poisoning. Three of those cases were tied directly to Milwaukee Public Schools. Now, the health department is hoping to test more students.
Health department officials announced its first lead screening clinic at Bradley Tech School will be on March 15.
This will only be open to students of the four schools where there were lead poisoning cases or where confirmed unsafe lead levels were found. Those schools are Golda Meir, Kagel, Trowbridge and Maryland Avenue Montessori.
The health department also said it has also partnered with Children’s Wisconsin, Sixteenth Street and MacCanon Brown Homeless Sanctuary for other lead testing clinics. Those clinics will be open to any MPS students.
“This is really a call to action for parents that have younger children in particular to start getting their children back to seeing their pediatrician to get blood screenings,” said Milwaukee Health Department Commissioner Mike Totoraitis. “This is going to be a team effort to make sure our residents of the city are safe, our students are safe in the schools.”
The city health department has also added 10 more MPS schools to its lead investigation. However, the department said there are currently no confirmed cases of lead poisoning at these schools.
“We have a priority list that we have made based on the age of the school, the age of the students in the school so it’s a pretty basic measure but that also helps us prioritize the schools and helps us marry that with what the district is looking for,” said Totoraitis.
The health department said it expects to have to offer more lead screening clinics as its investigation continues. It also said there are no other planned school closures at this time.
