Portland District Failed to Disclose Excessive Lead Levels at 47 School Buildings [View all]

"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/

----------------------------------------------------

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.