Superintendent Updates Info on Lead at Glencairn School

Above: ELPS Superintendent Robyne Thompson, courtesy ELPS

In a letter addressed to parents and sent out today, East Lansing Public Schools (ELPS) Superintendent Robyne Thompson has announced that the Glencairn School sink plumbing that had been contaminated with lead has now been replaced. Thompson’s letter also sought to reassure parents that further testing has not indicated any additional problems, although results for a new round of testing are not yet in. Those results are “expected by the end of this week or early next week,” and will then “be shared with the community.”

ELi previously reported that awareness around the Flint water crisis had lead some to question whether there was indeed lead contaminating water from a sink faucet at Glencairn School. An old sign above the faucet instructed users to flush the water for several minutes before using it, in order to flush out lead. New testing indicated that unflushed water from this sink indeed showed high levels of lead.

According to Thompson’s reports to parents, significant lead contamination was limited to this sink’s plumbing.

Thompson has said that the sign above this sink, warning about lead, appears to date back “to the late 80s or early 90s.”

This morning we asked Thompson by email to provide “an explanation of why the problem plumbing wasn’t replaced sooner, given that the sign above the faucet indicates it was known to be leaching lead into the water in that faucet?” She has not yet responded.

Note: In the report, "FD" means a reading after no flushing, "F-30" indicates a reading after a 30 second flush, and "F-200" indicates a reading after a two-minute flush.