High lead levels lead to sudden day care closure

Zoom in: The Crescent School announced its closure July 18 after a student was diagnosed with lead poisoning, day care owner Liza Drennon tells Axios New Orleans.

• When the diagnosis arrived, the student's home and the day care were tested, a Louisiana Department of Health spokesperson confirmed.
• Elevated lead levels were found both in the soil outside the school, where kids often play throughout the day, and in the dust inside its historic Algiers Point building, Drennon says. One of the city's oldest neighborhoods, it's known to have a denser concentration of lead in its soil.
• But the levels at the school were so high, Drennon says, she was forced to close immediately, pending remediation.

Caveat: It's not clear if the student's diagnosis stemmed directly from exposure at the school, or whether other sources played a role.

• Drennon declined to put Axios in touch with the family, citing their request for privacy.

Threat level: There is no safe level of lead for drinking water, according to the EPA, and soil contamination is of particular concern when children play in it. Go deeper: How to identify lead exposure symptoms.

• But like many other American cities built on aging infrastructure, New Orleans is grappling with high levels of the substance, which was commonly used in early construction.
• A massive project to discover and remove the city's lead water pipes, for example, has been in the works for years, but now faces delays due to contractor issues, the Times-Picayune reports.

How it works: The day care facility should have been lead-tested before it opened its doors, according to an LDH spokeswoman, citing state law.

• While the Louisiana Department of Education ultimately licenses these facilities, it relies on LDH to ensure compliance with health guidelines, an LDOE spokesman said.
• But LDH's "pre-opening inspection" does not include lead testing, and documents outlining LDOE's physical facility requirements don't mention lead. Rather, LDH says it requires testing "only when LDH receives mandatory notification of a case of lead poisoning or lead exposure."
• In other words, Drennon was legally required to have the facility lead-tested, but it doesn't appear to be anyone's job to make sure she did it.

Drennon says the Crescent School was fully licensed, with a license renewal from the Department of Education arriving just days before the student's lead test results.

• "I went through countless health inspections, fire inspections and Department of Education inspections," she says, noting that she wasn't aware of any specific lead test requirement. "If I had known I should have gotten a lead inspection, I would have and may never have moved into that building."

Yes, but: Either way, the cost to remediate totaled up to about $30,000, a fee Drennon says she couldn't pay without some concessions from her landlord, the neighborhood's Knights of Columbus organization.

• Drennon, who says the language of her lease protects her landlord from responsibility for the presence of lead, says she asked for a lease extension and reduced rent so she could pay back a family loan for the remediation cost.
• But the KoC declined after an organization vote.

The other side: The KoC saw the proposed rent reduction as "an unsustainably deep cut," according to an emailed statement from Ed Moise, who identified himself as the member who ran point on the school's lease.

• The group, he said, does not operate as a nonprofit and "must continue to meet certain obligations to maintain our charter. Currently, our options are to: merge with another council, become a non-chartered men's club, or disband, all of which we are currently exploring."
• "Unfortunately, our current financial situation makes it impossible for us to entertain Ms Drennan's offer," he said.

What's next: The dispute is playing out in dramatic fashion in the small New Orleans neighborhood, with Facebook posts and some people even protesting Sunday services at the church affiliated with the local Knights of Columbus.

• At its core, however, are dozens of families suddenly without child care options.
• "I don't see us having a future at the moment," says Drennon, who's been trying to connect her now out-of-work staffers with families who can afford nannies and babysitters. "Personally, and I've lost faith in a lot of this, so I don't know if I can continue."