The staff preschool at Kimball Union Academy has closed its doors due to airborne lead-based paint, which has local resident Jesse Mederios asking hard questions.
Medeiros said his second child attends the preschool, and she’s gone to school there for three years. His first child also attended the preschool for three years.
The official closure announcement happened on Wednesday, Jan. 31, and Medeiros said students were sent home early while they closed the building.
“The school gave us a handout. I’m not sure if they did their own testing. They just said, ‘Hey, there are high levels of lead, and we are closing early, and here’s a handout that says we think it’s all around the windows and doors,’” he said.
The legal status of this issue hasn’t been defined, but Medeiros told parents that if they want legal action to go anywhere, they should “stop talking to the administration, and start talking to attorneys.”
“That lasted about 45 minutes, and everybody is trying to go in their own direction on it,” he said.
A trip to the doctor for Medeiros’s child is in the works to make sure everything is OK.
“Just in passing, three parents on the early pickup day said their child has been consistently testing high for lead and were trying to take measures at home,” Medeiros said. “The school has been assuring us that it’s not here.”
The announcement made people emotional.
“I feel this is outrageous,” Medeiros said. “We’re not talking about one person with 5-6 kids in their old home. We’re talking about a wealthy, well-endowed private school that has had repeated complaints for years about the condition of that building and has refused to do anything.”
He said the school continues to build and is working on two new buildings that will cost “several million dollars” to complete for “additional tuitionable students.”
“Meanwhile, they’re poisoning our infants with lead,” Medeiros said.
Plainfield Town Manager Steve Halleran wasn’t sure who would inspect the Kimball Union Academy building used as a preschool and issue a certificate of occupancy, He noted that Town Health Officer Stephanie Schell renews permits through the state regularly, once every three years.
“Day care has gone on in that building for decades,” said Halleran. “We didn’t have a building inspector back then.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “even a complete physical examination may not identify subtle neurological effects that may be associated with low-level lead exposure in children. “The first signs of lead poisoning in children are often subtle neurobehavioral problems that adversely affect classroom behavior and social interaction.”
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