ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Three Lehigh County school districts were awarded state grants as part of a $75 million initiative to make environmental repairs and improvements in school buildings, officials announced Monday.
“My administration is committed to ensuring that Pennsylvania students have world-class school facilities that are safe and healthy so they can focus on learning and growing at school,” said Gov. Josh Shapiro, during a news conference in Berks County. "Too often, however, districts face costly and extensive repairs to bring old schools up to modern standards, or to address problems caused by emergencies like the devastating flooding that struck Antietam School District last year.
“I promised to help our school districts provide safe, healthy places for our students to learn — and that’s why I’ve fought for and delivered environmental repair funding as one piece of an historic investment in public education through my first 18 months in office.”
More than 100 school districts, career and technical education centers, and charter schools were awarded grants through the state Department of Education’s Environmental Repairs Grant program. Announced in February, it focuses on eliminating lead, mold, asbestos and other environmental hazards from school buildings.
Three of the awardees were school districts from the Lehigh Valley, all in Lehigh County: $113,801 to Allentown, $457,920 to Salisbury Township and $15,515 to Whitehall-Coplay.
Allentown School District will use the grant money to support the removal, disposal and replacement of damaged asbestos materials in multiple district buildings, said Tom Smith, ASD executive director of facilities services, in a statement.
ASD will work with Element Environmental Solutions on this project, he added.
Salisbury Township School District will use its grant to address stormwater and groundwater challenges at Salisbury Elementary School, said Superintendent Lynn Fuini-Hetten in a statement.
"This project is essential in resolving the unpredictable infiltration of subsurface water into our classroom pods," she said. "Installing new perimeter underdrain piping, re-routing roof drains, and implementing exterior sump pumps provides a safe and sustainable learning environment for our students and staff."
Whitehall-Coplay School District will use its grant to assist with partial asbestos abatement as part of the conversion of the old Gockley Elementary School building into the new Whitehall-Coplay Education Center, according to Superintendent Robert Steckel.
A full list of awardees can be found on the DOE’s website.
“Students can’t learn and educators can’t teach in unsafe, harmful environments, and the Shapiro Administration is committed to creating healthy learning spaces in schools across the commonwealth."DOE Secretary Dr. Khalid N. Mumin
“Students can’t learn and educators can’t teach in unsafe, harmful environments, and the Shapiro Administration is committed to creating healthy learning spaces in schools across the commonwealth,” said DOE Secretary Dr. Khalid N. Mumin. “This funding will enable schools to repair buildings and provide students and school staff with safe air to breathe, water to drink, and classrooms to learn in.”
Last week, PennEnvironment released, “Lead in School Drinking Water.” The new report focused on nine school districts across the commonwealth — including Bethlehem — and found gaps in state law and transparency to residents.
That report came a year after the nonprofit’s Get The Lead Out report gave Pennsylvania an “F” grade “for the inadequacy of the state’s policies aimed at stopping pervasive lead contamination of schools’ drinking water.”
Earlier that year, the commonwealth ranked fourth out of all U.S. states for the most lead pipes, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s “7th Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment.” Florida, Illinois and Ohio were the only states to rank higher.
In the Valley, six local school districts have reported unacceptable levels of lead in their water since 2018, including: Allentown, Easton Area, Parkland and Southern Lehigh school districts, and Bethlehem Vocational-Technical School and Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit 21.
Education reporter Jenny Roberts contributed to this report.
