MILWAUKEE — It has been three months since the Centers for Disease Control put members of its lead advisory team on administrative leave, but last week those federal employees were reinstated and will be working to continue their work advising the Milwaukee Health Department and Milwaukee Public Schools in the ongoing lead crisis.
City health commissioner Dr. Michael Totoraitis said he was in touch with members of the CDC team late last week on June 17th.
“Friday last week, I got an email from an individual that we were close to hiring here at MHD, but he told us that he had been rehired by the CDC, so we’re really excited about that,” said Dr. Totoraitis. “Right now, we’re scheduling a follow-up call with them soon to make sure that they are all caught up with where we are at this time in our lead cleaning efforts.”
In the time since the CDC lead advisory team was let go, the Milwaukee Health Department relied more upon the Wisconsin Department of Health Services for guidance. MHD also worked with the Milwaukee Health Department to clear and clean schools such as LaFollette School, Starms Early Childhood Center, Trowbridge School and Fernwood Montessori.
“A lot of the broader conversation around the investigation and data we were finding, we’ve been able to navigate those on our own, but the longer-term investigations into the hazards that are posed by our schools, that’s an ongoing conversation that we want to continue to have with the CDC given that they do these larger scale investigations more frequently than we do,” said Dr. Totoraitis.
Since the start of the summer, Milwaukee Public Schools has announced 14 new additional schools that will be cleaned throughout June and July as part of the district’s summer lead remediation clean up.
District Superintendent Dr. Brenda Casselius has told members of the district board of directors that MPS is trying to clear lead-dust of all 54 schools built before 1950 in the district by the time students return to school in the fall.
Dr. Totraitis in the meantime says that he’s looking forward to receiving more guidance and help from the CDC in the coming months.
“Unfortunately, a lot of time has passed since the CDC team was let go, but we are eager to hear waht they’re able to do now and then kind of assess the longer-term picture of the additional schools that will be worked on after the summer and then the continued need for screening here in the city,” said Dr. Totoraitis.
In all, the Milwaukee Public School district is hoping to make sure that around 100-plus schools are cleared of lead dust by the end of the calendar year.
