Philly Schools Are Aging. Should you be worried

The average age of Philadelphia Schools is 70 years, and over time these schools are breaking down. Asbestos and lead have a lot of students, staff, and parents concerned. Are these schools a danger, or has the school district done a good job maintaining these buildings?

Asbestos is in over half of Philadelphia's schools, places like insulation materials, popcorn ceilings, and more. The school district surveys schools every 3 years to find asbestos and manage it. 

“The school district knows where all the asbestos is, in every building” said Arthur L Frank, A physician who studies asbestos, and has over 100 publications on the subject.

I found the record for our school, High School of Engineering and Science, and there are several parts which are confirmed to contain asbestos, but none of these are likely to be exposed to students. Because of the location and limited exposure, Arthur Frank says it doesn’t pose a threat to students. ”Before you worry that it's going to cause disease in children in school, the likelihood of that happening, I mean, I've been doing this work for 50 years. [...] Just a school kid going to school. They have asbestos in it. That has never gotten sick from that.”

But asbestos isn’t the only risk, there are concerns about the water fountains within the school as well. Many students avoid the water fountains because they’re worried about the dangers. 

“I try to avoid the chlorine-based water in our school.” said Holland Young, a HSES Student.

On the surface, this worry seems to make sense. “More than 60% of all outlets across 65 Philly public schools tested positive for lead, according to the analysis.” Wrote Sophia Schmidt who wrote an article about lead in philly schools

But when you look a bit deeper these numbers are deceptive, after testing the faucets the school district shut down or repaired each faucet. Faucets at each school are tested at least every 5 years, and there’s filters on many water fountains that remove lead. “The district has also installed over 1,300 of the “hydration stations” where students can fill up water bottles” Wrote Sophia Schmidt

But there are no water fountains that have been tested to have lead which are open to students. Our school, Engineering and science had 32.4% of our outlets that tested positive for lead, but all the faucets with lead have been shut down. “In the event we find higher than 10ppb in any water outlet, action plans are implemented within 30 days from the receipt of the result. Action plans could include:

• Removal of the outlet

• Repair to the outlet

• Application of a filter

• Replacement of the outlet with a state-of-the-art hydration station” 

Wrote the school district on their website about lead testing. There are also many cases where water fountains will stop working, out of the 5 hydration stations within our school, only one works consistently.

While it can be easy to be worried about the aging buildings, it seems like the school district has done a good job keeping the students and staff safe for now .

“The School District of Philadelphia is fully committed to supporting clean, safe and welcoming learning environments for every student and staff member” said Monica Lewis, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia School District.