Two Top Portland School Officials Put on Leave

More bad news for Portland Public Schools.

Two top officials were put on leave late Thursday, district officials told Patch.

Tony Magliano, the chief operating officer, and Andy Fridley, the chief health and safety manager, were placed on paid leave by Superintendent Carole Smith.

Meanwhile, also late Thursday, the district announced that they've hired the law firm Stoll Berne to investigate why it took so long for news of elevated lead levels in schools to result in the water being turned off.

"We need to know - and the public deserves to know - what happened and how the accurate information about the health and safety of our schools was not immediately available leading to legitimate concerns about lead in our water," said School Board Chair Tom Koehler. "We need to know if we have the right protocols in place and where we need to make improvements.

"We also need to know if there are personnel issues that resulted in this delay of information."

The board gave Stoll Berne four directives:

• Review current systems, procedures and protocols regarding water testing;
• Evaluate management of information internally relating to lead contamination;
• Identify system operational and personnel breakdowns; and
• Complete review and findings within 30 days upon execution.

The move comes as the district reels from disclosure that many schools have tested positive for excessive levels of lead in the drinking water and several schools have a problem with elevated levels of radon.

Radon is a naturally-occurring radioactive gas found in the soil and can seep into the buildings through cracks in the foundation.

Earlier this year the state mandated that all districts submit a plan by September with all testing to be complete by 2021.

Portland Public Schools contracted with a company in March to conduct the first radon testing since 2001.

They got the results back Wednesday.

The testing found that of the 800 rooms in 26 buildings, 121 exceeded the action level set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA requires that when the results indicate levels between 4 pCi/L (picocuries/liter) and 10 pCi/L, a follow-up test is done for nine months during the school year following the initial result.

The 121 rooms fell in that area.

The results also found that nine rooms in six schools (Meek, Beamont, Whitman, Roseway Heights, lent, and Marysville) had radon levels at or above 10 pCi/L.

(THE STATE OF OREGON HAS AN INTERACTIVE RADON MAP HERE)

For those six schools, follow-up testing will begin Monday and last between 48-72 hours.

Meanwhile, the district is still contending with the evolving story of elevated levels in the drinking water of schools.

On Friday, after media inquiries, the district disclosed that elevated levels of lead had been found in the water at two schools in March.

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As it turns out, the district knew of lead problems going back years.

Willamette Week reported that between 2010 and 2012, the district tested 90 buildings and founded elevated levels at 47 of them.

Yet, the paper reports, they were not able to find anyone in the district who knew about the test results.

In addition, reporters for OPB have obtained emails showing the district knew of some elevated lead issues dating back to 2010.

“The reason for this practice is because the plumbing in many of our schools is old and, in some cases, lead levels above the acceptable standard have been found in the water in our schools,” then-PPS Spokeswoman Erin Barnett told wrote a parent in 2012.

Barnett had told the parent not to drink the water from classroom sinks.

Schools Superintendent Carole Smith maintains she only learned about the lead problems last week.

"She is beyond distressed," her spokeswoman, Christine Miles, told Patch. "She wants to know who knew, when they knew, and why wasn't she told.

"We want to make sure that the kids are safe, that kids are comfortable."

Also, Thursday, State Representative Knute Bueller, who represents a district that includes Bend and who lost the race for Secretary of State in 2014 to now-Governor Kate Brown, called for Carole Smith to resign.

"I am profoundly disappointed in the failure of leadership of the Portland School District in response to test results revealing dangerous levels of lead," he wrote in a letter to Koehler, the head of the Portland School Board.

"I believe it is Smith who should either resign or be placed on leave," he said, accusing Smith of "passing the accountability buck."

Christine Miles disagreed.

"The superintendent has made it very clear that the buck stops with her," Miles said.