Oakland School District calls lead contamination, failure to communicate "unacceptable"
The Oakland Unified School Board addressed elevated levels of lead found in water across school campuses in a packed school board meeting Wednesday night.
In April, the school district began testing different water sources at school. Out of hundreds of water sources tested, the data shows about seven percent came back with levels of lead higher than considered safe.
Though according to OUSD parents, they were not made aware of the issue until school started just weeks ago.
OUSD superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell called the incident a failure.
"The delayed communication was completely unacceptable. I apologize for the stress this has caused, we understand the gravity of the situation," Johnson-Trammell said. "We are taking full accountability and a full personnel investigation for the shortcomings and are determined to ensure that such failures do not occur in the future."
The district blamed aging infrastructure for the high lead levels and said it would cost more than $38 million to fix and replace old pipes.
They say they don’t have the budget for that, so they will turn to the state and federal government for help.
A guidance counselor at Frick elementary told KTVU that OUSD is not doing enough to find an immediate fix. She said that at times, the limited number of filtered water stations breaks and students don't have filtered water to drink.
"We had one flow station overheated and the kids literally had no water to drink," said the counselor. "People have been donating bottles of water."
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OUSD board to hear lead updates, vote on superintendent contract
The Oakland Unified school board on Wednesday afternoon will hear from the superintendent on the high levels of lead reported on some campuses on the same night that trustees are expected to extend her contract.