Summit Township Elementary School students will begin attending classes at Broad Street Elementary beginning Monday.
The district sent letters home to Summit parents today regarding the transition. According to the letter, the students’ homeroom teacher assignments will remain the same and each student will be escorted to his or her new homeroom location upon entering the building.
Details regarding each student’s bus information was also laid out. Supervisor of Transportation Debby Croft said the “length of each bus route has increased and apologized for the inconvenience.” The two schools are about seven miles apart.
Summit Township Elementary has been closed since Tuesday after tests revealed lead in the school’s drinking water and then subsequent tests found E. Coli in the raw well water coming into the school. Broad Street Elementary was closed a year and a half ago as part of the district’s consolidation but was never sold.
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Some Summit Township Elementary School parents held an informational meeting Wednesday night.
During the meeting, a school board member told the group of about 100 that the latest lead test done at the school has revealed that there are still unacceptable levels of lead in the water.
Head of the Summit Water Project Team Dr. William Pettigrew said the most recent test was done Friday. Additional results from that test are still not yet in- including the copper levels. It was that test that showed E.Coli was in the school’s untreated well water.
“We still don’t specifically know what is causing the problem,” Pettigrew said in an interview Thursday. “We have to determine what the problem is and then determine what corrective action should be taken. We do not want to move the kids back in there and then discover that something else is wrong.”
Summit students will report to Broad Street Elementary on Monday after being off school since Tuesday. Dr. Pettigrew expects students to attend Broad Street through March 31, or longer.
“We needed to get those children out of that school for their health and safety,” he said.
Written By: Kayla Molczan for the Butler Radio Network
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