Press Release: Parents Tell Board: Follow EPA Guidelines

Parents and Communities United for Education (PCUE)

Jersey City chapter of Statewide Education Organizing Committee (SEOC)

169-A Martin Luther King Drive

Jersey City, NJ 07305

201-918-2918

For Immediate Release

June 19, 2008

Parents Tell Board: Follow EPA Guidelines

On Thursday, June 19 from 6 to 8pm, parents from Parents and Communities United for Education (PCUE) will assemble at the Board of Education meeting taking place at school #11 on the corner of the Bergen Ave. and Academy Street. Parents will be holding signs and speaking during the public comment period to urge Dr. Epps and the members of the Board of Education to abide by its agreement with the US Environmental Protection Agency to fully inform parents and the community about the testing of water in Jersey City schools.

PCUE is asking the Board to:

1. Make a commitment to notify all parents by letter/mail when additional test results are ready after schools end on June 25;
2. Assign someone with the necessary authority whom parents can call with their concerns and ask questions;
3. Translate information into Spanish for thousands of Spanish speaking parents;
4. Provide parents with information on health hazards related to lead and how and where they can get assistance and testing if they need to.

Loyda Goldston, a parent with three children in PS # 34 said "We are very pleased to see that our schools are being tested for lead and parents have received notification about the testing schedule and that the test results for some schools have been released. However, we are here to make sure that our school district will notify all parents by mail when additional test results are ready after schools end on June 25. We want our district to translate this information into Spanish for parents who speak very little or no English. As parents we have a right to know when and if our children have been exposed to any health hazards."

Another parent, Marie Mervil, with child in McNair High School, stated that "Our school district, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, has an obligation to provide parents of children in schools with high levels of lead with information about lead related health hazards and resources where they can seek assistance and testing if they want to."

Parents want a comprehensive "Healthy Schools Program"

Since March of this year, PCUE has begun a Healthy School Campaign to safeguard the safety and well-being of Jersey City school children. Health hazards during this academic year affected thousands of children.

PCUE's campaign has highlighted health hazards in schools and proposed a four-point proposal including:

1. Immediately test drinking water in all schools and keep parents fully informed, 2. Create a standing committee of BOE members and parents that will be exclusively responsible for school health and safety, 3. Create an Indoor Air Quality Team at the district level following EPA guidelines, and 4. Issue semi-annual health and safety report cards for each school to be sent to parents and posted on the District's website.

PCUE is a grassroots organization of parents, grandparents, and concerned members of the community that is a chapter of the Statewide Education Organizing Committee of NJ. PCUE is committed to organizing parents in all Jersey City communities to improve education for our children and create schools that are healthy and safe. For more information on PCUE, parents are invited to call 201-918-2918 or visit the blog at http://pcueforhealthyschools.blogspot.com/

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Contact:

LueElla McFadden-201-780-1933

Loyda Goldston-973-204-4121