Sunday, November 23, 2008
Letter from Epps to PCUE regarding lead remediation plan
Page 1
Page 2Please click on the images to read the letter.
Friday, November 21, 2008
PCUE Letter to Dr. Epps: Fix high level of lead in our schools’ drinking water sources
Parents and Communities United for Education (PCUE)
Jersey City Chapter of the Statewide Education Organizing Committee (SEOC)
169-A Martin Luther King Drive, Jersey City NJ 07305
201-918-2918 --- pcue.info@seocnj.org
Nov. 10, 2008
Dr. Charles Epps, School District Superintendent
Jersey City Board of Education
346 Claremont Ave.
Jersey City, NJ 07305
Dear Dr. Epps,
As we write this letter to you, PCUE has not yet received the lead remediation plan/timeline. You told us, in your letter dated Oct. 8, that it would be available to us by the week of Oct. 20th. The plan was originally supposed to be ready by Oct. 3 as was stated to the Jersey Journal by your spokesperson Mr. Roger Jones. We are very disappointed that our school district has been dragging its feet to deal with the lead problem in drinking water in a decisive manner.
More than two years ago in September 2006, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warned you about the high level of lead in drinking water in our schools. For 18 months, your administration not only failed to do anything about it, but also did not share that information with parents of children in our schools and the community until it became national news in January 2008.
Under public pressure, your administration finally began testing of water sources in all schools in May, 2008 and completed the process in July. In your letter to the parents, you stated that according to EPA guidelines a remediation plan could only be developed when all the testing is done and test results were available for all schools. This was inaccurate information to the public which you attributed to EPA. We learned about this information from a letter that was sent to you by Ms. Dore LaPosta, Director of Division of Enforcement and Compliance Assistance, EPA Region II.
As stated by Ms. LaPosta, there was no need to wait to have the test results for all the schools. Your administration could have begun correcting lead problem as test results were available for each school. This would mean that the district could have remediated the lead problem before the start of this school year.
EPA guidelines require a short-term and a long term plan to rectify the lead problem. We are glad to see that as a short-term solution, the district is currently providing safe drinking water to children in our schools. However, safe drinking water availability is a continuous problem in many schools. Parents from various schools complain that water coolers provided by the school district either run out of water or cups are not available. In other occasions, water is not readily accessible to children. Some parents even complain that their schools do not even provide drinking water for children unless in case of emergency when children forget to bring water from home. On Thursday, Nov. 6 we called and conveyed this to Mr. Crisonino.
We understand that providing safe drinking water to 30,000 students in 40 schools, under current condition when drinking water fountains are shut off, is not an easy job. However, we are asking that the school district make all the effort to have safe drinking water available for our children at all times. No child in our schools should go without safe drinking water and no parent should be forced to provide water to their children to take to school. It is the responsibility of schools to have safe drinking water for our children while they are in schools.
Also, we urge you to share with parents and the community how and when you plan to permanently fix the lead problem in drinking water. Under EPA guideline, you are advised to share that information with the public. Furthermore, you made a commitment to parents that you would notify them of the lead remediation plan/timeline.
As parents of children, we have a right to know how and when the district will be correcting this long over due lead problem that exist in our schools. We are concerned about our children’s health, well-being, and comfort in schools. We are concerned that the school district is not motivated enough to act decisively to deal with the lead problem and even worse is keeping us in the dark.
Dr. Epps, we urge you to address our concerns. It is time for action, not more promises. You may reach us at 201-918-2918.
Sincerely,
LueElla McFadden, President
Parents and Communities United for Education
Cc: Members of the Board of Education
Jersey City Chapter of the Statewide Education Organizing Committee (SEOC)
169-A Martin Luther King Drive, Jersey City NJ 07305
201-918-2918 --- pcue.info@seocnj.org
Nov. 10, 2008
Dr. Charles Epps, School District Superintendent
Jersey City Board of Education
346 Claremont Ave.
Jersey City, NJ 07305
Dear Dr. Epps,
As we write this letter to you, PCUE has not yet received the lead remediation plan/timeline. You told us, in your letter dated Oct. 8, that it would be available to us by the week of Oct. 20th. The plan was originally supposed to be ready by Oct. 3 as was stated to the Jersey Journal by your spokesperson Mr. Roger Jones. We are very disappointed that our school district has been dragging its feet to deal with the lead problem in drinking water in a decisive manner.
More than two years ago in September 2006, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warned you about the high level of lead in drinking water in our schools. For 18 months, your administration not only failed to do anything about it, but also did not share that information with parents of children in our schools and the community until it became national news in January 2008.
Under public pressure, your administration finally began testing of water sources in all schools in May, 2008 and completed the process in July. In your letter to the parents, you stated that according to EPA guidelines a remediation plan could only be developed when all the testing is done and test results were available for all schools. This was inaccurate information to the public which you attributed to EPA. We learned about this information from a letter that was sent to you by Ms. Dore LaPosta, Director of Division of Enforcement and Compliance Assistance, EPA Region II.
As stated by Ms. LaPosta, there was no need to wait to have the test results for all the schools. Your administration could have begun correcting lead problem as test results were available for each school. This would mean that the district could have remediated the lead problem before the start of this school year.
EPA guidelines require a short-term and a long term plan to rectify the lead problem. We are glad to see that as a short-term solution, the district is currently providing safe drinking water to children in our schools. However, safe drinking water availability is a continuous problem in many schools. Parents from various schools complain that water coolers provided by the school district either run out of water or cups are not available. In other occasions, water is not readily accessible to children. Some parents even complain that their schools do not even provide drinking water for children unless in case of emergency when children forget to bring water from home. On Thursday, Nov. 6 we called and conveyed this to Mr. Crisonino.
We understand that providing safe drinking water to 30,000 students in 40 schools, under current condition when drinking water fountains are shut off, is not an easy job. However, we are asking that the school district make all the effort to have safe drinking water available for our children at all times. No child in our schools should go without safe drinking water and no parent should be forced to provide water to their children to take to school. It is the responsibility of schools to have safe drinking water for our children while they are in schools.
Also, we urge you to share with parents and the community how and when you plan to permanently fix the lead problem in drinking water. Under EPA guideline, you are advised to share that information with the public. Furthermore, you made a commitment to parents that you would notify them of the lead remediation plan/timeline.
As parents of children, we have a right to know how and when the district will be correcting this long over due lead problem that exist in our schools. We are concerned about our children’s health, well-being, and comfort in schools. We are concerned that the school district is not motivated enough to act decisively to deal with the lead problem and even worse is keeping us in the dark.
Dr. Epps, we urge you to address our concerns. It is time for action, not more promises. You may reach us at 201-918-2918.
Sincerely,
LueElla McFadden, President
Parents and Communities United for Education
Cc: Members of the Board of Education
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Jersey Journal: School cafeteria can't reopen yet
School cafeteria can't reopen yet
Friday, October 24, 2008
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
The cafeteria at School 25 in the Jersey City Heights section flunked an inspection by city health officials yesterday morning when they found fresh mouse droppings, city and school officials said.
The cafeteria, which serves 723 kindergarten through fifth-graders, was shut Tuesday.
Inspectors yesterday found mouse droppings in the kitchen and dining area and it appears the exterminator called in by school officials treated the area for a cockroach problem instead of mice infestation, said city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill.
School officials were told they need to put down glue traps and seal openings around entry doors so mice can't enter the building, Morrill said.
"We are not looking to fine them (the Board of Education)," Morrill added. "We are looking to insure that the cafeteria is safe and that no one gets sick from any diseases that could possibly spread from mice activity."
An employee at the Kennedy Boulevard school, who didn't want to be identified, said the mice problem is nothing new and has spread to classrooms.
"And now that food is being eaten in the classrooms it is going to get worse," the worker said.
Custodians were scheduled to work though the night if necessary to rectify the problem, said Board of Education spokesman Gerard Crisonino.
Students at the school ate breakfast and lunch in their classrooms, which would be cleaned thoroughly at the end of the day, Crisonino said.
The school had cold lunches brought in, he said. Normally, the school doesn't prepare hot meals, but heats food already prepared in the kitchen, he said.
In the meantime, some 300 students and their teachers at the School 23 Annex on Duncan Avenue went without heat Wednesday afternoon and half of yesterday due to a broken valve on the school's furnace, Crisonino said. The boiler was fixed yesterday about 1 p.m., he said.
School 25 cafeteria is shut; mouse dropping cited
School 25 cafeteria is shut; mouse
droppings cited
Thursday, October 23, 2008
By TOM SHORTELL
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
Jersey City health inspectors closed the cafeteria of School 25 in the Heights on Tuesday after receiving a tip about mouse problems on the building's ground floor.
Inspectors found mice droppings in the ground floor cafeteria and the basement of the Kennedy Boulevard school, said Jennifer Morrill, the mayor's spokeswoman.
Inspectors closed the cafeteria after lunch on Tuesday and it will remain closed until it can pass inspection, officials said. In the meantime, cafeteria workers cannot heat food for the school's 723 kindergarten through fifth grade students, officials said.
Meals at School 25 are cooked elsewhere, but heated and served in the cafeteria, said Jersey City Public Schools spokesman Gerard Crisonino. The school has called in exterminators and needs to board up any access points mice could have to the building, Morrill said.
Crisonino said the Board of Education hopes the cafeteria can be reopened today, when health inspectors are expected to re-examine the building.
The violations aren't as severe as inspectors made them out to be, he added. "The health violations were not that egregious. However, we don't want any of our facilities to not be the best environment for students," he said.
Students ate breakfast in their classrooms yesterday, and no lunch was scheduled since it was a half day, he said.
Most students at the school get lunches for free or at reduced prices through a federal food program, he added.
Letter from Epps to PCUE regarding lead remediation plan
Charles Epps, JC School District Superintendent, promises to have the lead remediation plan available by the of week of Oct. 20.
To read the letter please click on the image above.
Monday, October 6, 2008
PCUE Asks Dr. Epps for Lead Remediation Plan
Parents and Communities United for Education (PCUE)
Office: 201-9182918 -- Email:pcue.info@seocnj.org
September 30, 2008
Dear Dr. Epps,
We are writing you today to first and foremost thank you for responding to our concerns and your work in ensuring that our public schools were tested for lead and also for your efforts in providing our children with water coolers in the schools.
On Sept.3, 2008, Mr. Roger Jones, your spokesperson, told the Jersey Journal that a remediation plan to permanently correct lead problem in drinking water would be ready within 30 days. The 30-day mark, (Oct. 3rd) is fast approaching, and we are anxiously awaiting this plan/timeline. We, as the concerned parents of children in your district are requesting that a copy that of this remediation plan/timeline be sent to our office by Oct. 8th when our members meet to review it. Your cooperation in this matter is much appreciated.
Sincerely
Louella McFadden, President of P.C.U.E.
CC:
All School Board Members
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
