MILWAUKEE — During the Milwaukee Public Schools Board of School Directors meeting on Thursday, Superintendent Dr. Brenda Cassellius announced that with ongoing clean up efforts, Fernwood Montessori could open next Wednesday.
“At Fernwood, renovation and cleaning are now complete. The school is undergoing thorough cleaning which we expect will be complete by this weekend,” said Dr. Cassellius. “When the cleaning is complete, the city of Milwaukee Health Department will inspect the building which we expect to take place this Monday. If all things go as expected, teachers will be provided the full day on Tuesday to set up their classrooms. Meanwhile on Tuesday, students will report to Douglas Middle School where they have been welcomed by Milwaukee Rec members, our academic team and our administrator from Fernwood. We are pleased to announce that Fernwood should reopen to staff and students on Wednesday if everything goes according to plan.”
These updates come as a relief to MPS parents as Fernwood, Starms Early Childhood Center and LaFollette school were all closed for the past few weeks due to lead dust contamination as part of MPS’ ongoing lead crisis.
In the time that the three schools have closed, MPS and MHD have been working together to put together a joint-plan to fully address remediation and cleaning methods of lead and lead dust across MPS district schools and facilities.
Dr. Cassellius also provided updates on Starms Early Childhood Center and LaFollette School.
“At LaFollette, renovation work and painting began on April 15th which was when the newly acquired contractor was first available to start the work,” said Dr. Cassellius. “The work is expected to take four to five weeks in order for the school to be complete. With Starms Early Childhood Center, renovation and painting are ongoing and are about 75% of the way through. We expect this stage of work to be finished by the end of April and then a thorough cleaning will be performed before the inspection by the city of Milwaukee health department.”
MPS and MHD have not announced any new closures within the school district, but has pointed out multiple times that lead is present in any MPS building built before 1978.
