Portland District Failed to Disclose Excessive Lead Levels at 47 School Buildings

[HuckleB]

Source: Willamette Week

Last week, Portlanders learned the Portland Public Schools had found elevated levels of lead in water at two schools in March, but failed to disclose this information for nearly two months.

In the past few days, WW has learned and confirmed that PPS did tests across the district from 2010 to 2012—at 90 buildings—finding elevated levels of lead in the water at 47 of them, including Jefferson and Cleveland high schools and Ainsworth Elementary School. In some cases, the levels were higher than those found at Creston and Rose City Park, the schools that were named last week.

This highly charged finding comes from a printout WW received from a district database of all water testing from 2001 through February 2015. The printout shows that 47 structures—schools, office buildings and others—tested for levels of lead from 2010 to 2012 that were above the federal standard of 15 parts per billion.

As extraordinary as these findings are, WW could not find anyone at PPS who says they knew of the testing, or the results, prior to learning of them from WW last Friday. Nor is it clear what was done in response to the tests.

Read more: http://www.wweek.com/news/2016/05/31/portland-district-failed-to-disclose-excessive-lead-levels-at-47-school-buildings/

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This district's leadership has failed at every turn for years. This is disgusting, and yet the Superintendent who cannot build a decent organization is passing the buck again.

[HuckleB]

1. The document that shows the results of the testing.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/wapopartners.com/wweek-wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/01012139/All-Schools-Water-Test-Results.pdf

I am puzzled by the fact that this story is being ignored, for the most part, at DU.

[Angel Martin]

10. I am puzzled by the fact that this story is being ignored, for the most part, at DU

no Repubs to blame on this one

Portland and Oregon elected officials = Democrats from top to bottom, so... nothing to see here, move along

some people are too blinded by partisanship to see that these coverups come from institutions burying things and covering things up because it is just easier than admitting to problems and getting them fixed. It's bureaucratic, and party control is mostly irrelevant.

[HuckleB]

13. I'm not sure I agree with you, but...

... at this point I have to take your supposition as a serious possibility.

[L. Coyote]

2. People need to lose their cushy jobs over this debacle.

And hopefully the Oregon Education Association takes the lead in that effort, instead of defending its members.

[HuckleB]

3. A lot of teachers are pissed off, too.

Hopefully they will organize around the need for a top down reconstruction of the district administration.

[yurbud]

4. Does the OEA represent administrators? Teachers usually have no say in this kind of stuff

[HuckleB]

5. I don't think so.

Hopefully the OEA will fight for its teachers in advocating for mass changes at the administrative level.

[L. Coyote]

7. Good point. And the teachers are drinking the same water as the students.

[HuckleB]

8. The president of the Portland Association of Teachers is quoted in the article.

She is not happy with the district.

[HuckleB]

9. BTW, if you're a PPS parent, there is a second meeting tonight at Rose City Park.

I will be there, popcorn and possibly a statement in hand.

[L. Coyote]

11. Right on. Giv' em hell.

[HuckleB]

12. I wrote up a draft of sorts.

I have it out to my favorite, most honest, and brutal editors.

I'll see what they say before I go up there a trembling.

Did someone say public speaking. Uh, oh. Panic.

[HuckleB]

6. AP Story In NYT: Portland Parents Decry Officials Over Lead at 2 Schools

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/06/01/us/ap-us-portland-schools-lead.html?_r=0

"Parents sometimes shouted as they criticized officials over high amounts of lead in drinking water at two Portland schools, while the head of the district promised an independent investigation into the contamination.

Some parents grilled a panel of Portland Public Schools administrators and government water officials after tests in March revealed elevated levels of lead in 14 of 92 water sources at Creston K-8 School and the Rose City Park School. They faulted school officials for failing to warn people not to drink the water and follow through on previous signs of problems.

"I have a third-grader who's been drinking from the fountain with the highest lead level all year, and last year and the year before was drinking from one of the other ones," parent Judy Burke said. "So for three years of his 9-year-old life has been drinking this water."

The district said it will provide bottled drinking water for students and staff at all its schools through the end of the school year, until tested can be done this summer, which happens every 15 years. The district placed bags over water fountains at all schools Friday, Superintendent Carole Smith said.

..."

[HuckleB]

14. Portland Public Schools Lead Scandal Continues To Grow (Updates)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027877721