Wednesday was one of the hottest days of the year in San Francisco, but water sources were limited for more than 600 students at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 school in the Mission.
Teachers said they were caught off-guard yesterday morning when drinking fountains and faucets, which had previously been flagged for high levels of lead contamination, were wrapped in plastic and blocked off.
Buena Vista Horace Mann has struggled with contaminated water for almost two years: In 2022, teachers threatened to walk out over arsenic and lead on site.
Principal Claudia DeLarios Morán says the school has been advocating for around two months that faucets or fountains containing more than five parts per billion of lead be shut down. But it was not until this week, the hottest of the year, that the district did so.
The school district has not responded to Mission Local’s requests for comment.
Art teacher Erin Mapes told Mission Local that she was prepping for class when a school custodian entered her room around 10 a.m., telling her that he’d been instructed to tape off all faucets that had previously been tested and revealed high levels of lead. Her classroom had three such faucets, all currently used only for handwashing.
“I had no idea that this was going to happen,” Mapes said. She asked the custodian if he had any more information. “He was, like, ‘Nope, they just told me to do this,’” she recalled.
In August, school staff expressed concern to the district facilities department that multiple faucets on site had previously tested above safe levels, said Nick Chandler, Buena Vista Horace Mann’s community school coordinator, who works closely with the principal. As recently as June, DeLarios Morán stated, the district informed Buena Vista Horace Mann staff that “if a sink is not covered or cordoned off, it has been deemed safe to drink because it has less than 5 ppb of lead in it.”
Amid Wednesday’s heatwave, perhaps half of the school’s fountains and faucets were shut down, Chandler continued. DeLarios Morán said the move was long overdue, and she was glad students wouldn’t be tempted to drink from problematic fountains on a hot day.
Still, she acknowledged that the timing was less than ideal. “We get regular deliveries of water,” she said. “But it lagged in the last couple of days.” Bottled water was handed out to students, but staff said the supply was limited. Teachers began reporting a “water emergency,” according to emails reviewed by Mission Local.
On Tuesday, yard monitors set up a slip-and-slide to help kids cool down at recess. On Wednesday morning, science and health teacher Perla Rivas said she began class by reminding students to stay hydrated, before she realized that many of their water fountains would be inaccessible.
DeLarios Morán said the problem was that this hadn’t happened sooner: “The faucets should’ve been covered up from the beginning of the year.”
This is a good example of why I am reluctant to vote for any more money for SFUSD. The payroll system disaster, the missing $30 million, the inability to have in place alternative watering stations for students in this situation is just more proof that the administration is incompetent and more money will not solve the problems of stupidity, indifference and corruption.
I support the concept of public schools. I do not support SFUSD.
We voters MUST support increased funding for SFUSD. These catastrophes are a result of under-funding and mismanagement. Don’t punish the students, teachers, and public education because of the failures of the bureaucrats and mayor’s office.
Is it 5 parts per million or per billion? Isn’t the latter kind of natural? Didn’t she think to send someone to Costco to buy a few cases of bottled water? Please don’t tell me how the gazillion dollar a year SFUSD can’t afford that.
Ed Lee legacy.
OOPS after 5 or 7 please insert lawyers.
Matt Alexander put out a chart comparing SFUSD to Long Beach School District (almost same # of students). One example is SFUSD employs 27 or 37 ( my recall is fuzzy) and Long Beach 5 or 7. So obviously mismanagement (thank you Mr. Alexander for your honesty & care for our students). I will no longer be voting for school funds. Today a neighbor told me that her children’s elementary school has no room in the afterschool program. So no to London, Maria Siu (DCYF – Dept of Children Youth & Families) or Phil G of Park & Rec.
The school bond is to improve our facilities. Which as you can see from this article is critical.
Also, the logic isn’t quite right. SFUSD operates as both county and city, unlike Long Beach Unified crosses over several LA County cities and so the responsibilities are spread. They also have 85 schools, we have 121 schools. They serve more kids in less buildings.
The way after school programming works is that they hire based on demand and for some extra seats and these roles are also hard to hire for. This isn’t on DCYF, they don’t run these programs. Community based organizations do.