Lead-contaminated water dominates budget meeting

HAMILTON >> As the Hamilton Township Board of Education held its budget meeting Wednesday evening at Crockett Middle School, the public peppered the district’s interim superintendent with questions over the discovery of high lead levels in some of the district’s drinking water.

“The moment we found out there was lead in any drinking water, that order was made immediately to turn that off,” Interim Superintendent of Schools Thomas J. Ficarra said. He vowed that “children are not going to drink any water” from a Hamilton public school source that tested high for lead.

The school district several weeks ago voluntarily opted to test the drinking water at all Hamilton public school sites to determine whether any water fountains or kitchen sinks had high levels of lead in the water.

Water sample test results confirm several district schools had at least one fountain test at a high level for lead in the water, but the school that had the most severe lead problem to date is Morgan Elementary School, which had all of its drinking fountains and drinking faucets shut off pending the results of additional testing and a written report that will be conducted by the district’s environmental consultant, Karl and Associates. The district is still awaiting test results for about half of its school sites, according to district officials.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in a post on its website, said “lead is particularly dangerous to children because their growing bodies absorb more lead than adults do and their brains and nervous systems are more sensitive to the damaging effects of lead.”

The EPA says lead can affect almost every organ and system in the human body and that children 6 and younger are most susceptible to the effects of lead. Low levels of lead in the blood of children can result in behavior and learning problems, lower IQ and hyperactivity, slowed growth, hearing problems and anemia, according to the EPA.

“We don’t know the extent of the problem districtwide,” Ficarra said of the district’s lead issues at Wednesday’s school board meeting. “We are hoping the reports come back sooner rather than later.”

District Business Administrator Katherine Attwood said the district is now “trying to understand the scope of the issue.”

“It is not our fault this is happening,” school board member Susan Lombardo said after members from the public asked multiple questions about the lead problem.

“We are in the middle of a budget presentation and we are talking about water,” Lombardo said.

Ficarra promised his administration and the school board will keep the public informed on the lead issue, saying he will give a water quality presentation “when we have all of the information” on the scope of the lead problem across the district.

Lombardo later apologized for her comments, saying she “didn’t mean any disrespect” and that “I know I overreacted” but just wanted to stay focused on the budget.

The school board Wednesday night approved a $201.7 million budget for the 2016-17 school year, a budget that stipulates a combination of tax hikes and program cuts.

The budget increases the district’s tax levy by $3.5 million to meet — but not exceed — the state’s 2 percent tax levy cap law. With few exceptions, an annual tax levy increase of greater than 2 percent would have to be approved by voters in a referendum.

The district’s 2016-17 budget also cuts $1.6 million in employee salaries and health benefits, such as cutting nine Spanish teachers from the elementary level. Furthermore, the budget cuts $1.4 million in programs and office supplies, such as cutting the district’s adult and community education program.

The spending cuts and tax levy increase allowed the district to close a $6.5 million budget deficit. “We cut jobs because we had to balance the budget,” said Ficarra, who called the now-eliminated data coaches and Spanish teachers “hardworking, good people who contributed to our district.”

The average home in Hamilton Township is assessed at $213,900, according to Ficarra. He said the average homeowner will pay $13.82 more per year in school taxes as a result of the levy hike. He said that is equivalent to the average homeowner paying $1.15 more in school taxes per month than what the average homeowner paid last year.