Franklin school district gets new toxin test results
UPDATE
Franklin Community Schools said Thursday it’s received new data from tests for toxins at two elementary schools. But, the district “continues to work through this process” and isn’t yet releasing the results.
The Johnson County school district last week said it expected to release the testing results March 28.
The district’s students are on spring break. Classes are set to resume Monday.
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FRANKLIN, Ind. (WISH) — Dangerous chemicals were found a second time at two different Franklin elementary schools.
One of those chemicals is specifically known to cause cancer.
The school district released the test results in a news conference March 22.
“I have a lot of questions,“ Franklin parent Erin Krestakos-Fromson said.
There is a chance students will not return to Needham or Webb elementary schools, where the contamination was found, after their seven-day spring break that began March 22.
“We had one child go there for four years, and she’s not healthy,“ Krestakos-Fromson said.
An Indianapolis environmental company wanted to take a second round of tests in the winter after earlier testing in July. The sampling was conducted on March 19 and 20 at both elementary schools.
“The results show the subslab vapor concentrations of both TCE (trichloroethylene) and PCE (tetrachloroethylene) increased since August 2018 most likely due to the winter seasonal conditions,“ EnviroForensics scientist Jeff Carnahan said.
The testing comes after the EPA found cancer-causing chemicals outside the former Amphenol plant in November. They thought it was contained back in the 1990s. The results from this week showed the TCE levels were above the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s screening levels. Those results are alarming to some parents.
“Over 10 times the allowable level and I just think of those students,“ Krestakos-Fromson said. “I know they waited until the end of winter to get these readings, but it seems like they would have done something along the line and saw the increase over time.“
Environmental officials said they’re not sure if the air inside the elementary schools is affected but plan to test it this weekend.
“It will never be my intention to put a student or a staff member back into a facility where there would be question of unsafe air quality,“ Franklin Community Schools Superintendent David Clendening said. “We’re committed to having kids be safe and to insuring that the best learning environment prevails.”
In July, Franklin school officials tested the air, water and soil in the area after data showed alarming levels of toxic chemicals in homes near schools. Environmental officials had earlier found nearly half of the homes had dangerous levels of radon, TCE and a handful had high levels of other toxins.
“Thinking what my daughter was exposed to, even though there’s no way to determine if it was because of this, brings a lot of personal guilt,“ Krestakos-Fromson said.
The school district is promising parents they are concerned about the safety of all children.
“We’re not going to make anybody at risk,“ Superintendent Clendening said. “When we were tested in the summer, there was no indication based on the data we received. Now that we have that data, we’re continuing to look at various scenarios that would not put them back there.“
Now in a matter of days, new results could shape the future.
As of now, the district says they do not plan on testing any other schools. The district said it has set aside money to pay for the testing and that it’s not even a question. School officials plan to release the new test results on March 28.