Students at Carrie Gosch Elementary School in East Chicago will start school on time Aug. 15, but in an entirely different building despite Gosch being cleared by the Environmental Protection Agency.
School City of East Chicago Superintendent Paige McNulty announced Monday afternoon the school’s 430 students and 40 teachers will spend at least the 2016-2017 school year in the former West Side Junior High School building. While Gosch itself has been declared safe, a section of the parking lot on the school’s southeast side will need remediation, according to Brad Benning, the EPA’s on-site coordinator for emergency response in Region 5.
“Our students’ and staff’s health is most important to us, and so we are erring on the side of caution,” McNulty said to parents and students in the Gosch auditorium. “We have hired a moving company to start taking things over to West Side tomorrow, and we will be starting school Aug. 15.
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“It’s important that kids start on time, so please get them registered.”
Benning said his team has been working in the West Calumet area for the last six weeks and the grounds are overall in good shape, though they’re still waiting for more results from samples taken in the West Calumet Complex. For residents there, the EPA will provide top-to-bottom cleaning for apartments there free-of-charge.
It will also provide hotel reimbursement and a per diem for food while residents are displaced.
“Our people have been canvassing the neighborhood offering the service, and we’ve been getting good feedback. You’ll be seeing us more, too,” Benning said.
The East Chicago Health Department is offering blood tests for children under six years of age and will set up a satellite office in the West Calumet Maintenance Complex in the next few days as well as setting up a satellite office in the West Side Building, McNulty said. The most important thing for her, however, is getting kids enrolled in school for the year.
“I know many of you are waiting for vouchers, but those aren’t going to be in yet. Please get your students enrolled somewhere for Aug. 15, because it’ll be harder for them to get into their routine if you wait,” McNulty said.
McNulty said she spoke to parents in the last few days and said she got the sense they’re relieved and thankful for the move.
State Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago, said he’s concerned that so many of these questions have been unanswered for years and wonders why there hasn’t been incremental testing since the lead discovery in the 1970s. To that end, he’s formed committees to examine the issue and will hold a public forum sometime this week, he said.
Akeesha Daniels has lived in West Calumet for 39 years and said she thinks moving the kids to a different school this year is good and bad – good to get them out of potential harm’s way but bad that things are going to be disrupted for them.
“These are kids who’re used to walking to school, and now, is the bus going to pick them up where? And are they going to have the right uniforms?” Daniels said. And we know there’s lead, but what about arsenic? And the water?”
Benning said there is no issue with anyone’s drinking water, but they are taking sampled to be sure.
The School City of East Chicago folded West Side Junior High into Block Middle School starting this year, leaving West Side open.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.