Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School Status Updates

Dear Naomi L. Brooks Families and Staff,

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we have collaborated closely with the Alexandria Health Department (AHD) to provide free lead testing for Naomi L. Brooks students and staff. AHD has asked us to share the following information and instructions regarding the lead testing that the team has organized. Please see the letter below and on the Naomi L. Brooks School Status Update webpage.

If you have any questions regarding the lead testing information provided, please contact the Alexandria Health Department for health guidance at 703-746-4988. For additional information or questions about the school, please contact ask@acps.k12.va.us or visit the dedicated Naomi L. Brooks School Status Update webpage. 

In the interest of time, we are sharing this information now so you can plan for testing. Families and staff can expect to receive another update later today with more information about school opening and the FAQs we have developed.

Sincerely,

Dear Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School Families and Staff,

We are providing a follow-up regarding the progress of the lead remediation within the school. In addition, we want to remind everyone of the FREE lead exposure testing that is being provided by the Alexandria Department of Health. An update on the reopening plans will be provided tomorrow, October 3, 2024. 

Remediation Update
As we shared in our previous updates, the remediation process, to include cleaning efforts, is underway and anticipated to be completed within the next couple of days. Please know that as cleaning is being completed, clearance testing is being conducted to confirm that the remediation efforts were effective in removing lead-containing dust. Clearance testing has to be completed and results verified to meet acceptable thresholds prior to the reopening of the school.

As part of the cleaning remediation process, our third-party environmental remediation contractor is wet-wiping primary accessible surfaces, high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) vacuuming the floor, and using Sentinel 805 Lead Dust Cleaner to clean windows, doors, furniture, and school supplies. They are also removing any loose flaking paint with hand tools, followed by HEPA vacuuming and applying lead encapsulant coating. 

Please view the updated diagram of the spaces that have been cleaned and cleared as of this morning, October 3, 2024. For additional context related to the diagram, please note that green-shaded spaces indicate cleaning and testing has been completed and these spaces are ready for occupancy as results came back below the detectable threshold. Yellow-shaded spaces indicate cleaning has been completed and we are awaiting the results of final clearance testing (in the case of the gym, cleaning is underway and testing will be completed once all cleaning is done). 

Lead Exposure Testing Reminder
The Alexandria Health Department (AHD) is offering FREE, walk-in lead level testing on Thursday, October 3 and Friday, October 4. Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School students, staff, families of students and volunteers are all eligible to be tested. AHD will not be checking class or staff lists.

When: Testing is available on Thursday, October 3 and Friday, October 4. Rather than specific appointment times, families should walk in during one of the following time frames:

• Thursday, October 3: 1 p.m. – 6 p.m.

•  Friday, October 4, 1 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Where: Testing will occur at Alexandria Health Department, located on the 4th floor at the Del Pepper Community Resource Center at 4850 Mark Center Drive. There is free parking in the garage, or you can take the free DASH bus (lines 35, 36, and 102) to the Mark Center Transit Station.

What to Bring: All children must be accompanied by an adult. You do not need to bring insurance information or ID. If you have a provider, please bring their contact information.

Additional information on the lead level testing is available on the Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School Status Updates webpage. 

Contact Information
Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to resolve this issue and prepare Brooks for a safe reopening. 

Please contact the Alexandria Health Department for health guidance at 703-746-4988.

For additional information or questions about the school, please contact ask@acps.k12.va.us or visit the dedicated Naomi L. Brooks School Status Update webpage. 

Sincerely,
Dr. Alicia Hart
Chief Operating Officer

Dr. Melanie Kay-Wyatt
Superintendent

Dear Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School Families and Staff,

Thank you to our families, staff and community members who joined us for the Naomi L. Brooks (Brooks) community webinar that we we cohosted with the Alexandria Health Department last evening. A recording of the webinar has been posted on the Naomi L. Brooks School Status Update webpage.

School Reopening Plans
At this time, we are moving towards reopening classrooms and office spaces at Brooks on Monday, October 7, 2024 dependent on final clearance testing that we hope to receive for those areas within the next day or so. Clearance tests must show these spaces as below detectable levels prior to formal reopening.  Please note that we do not anticipate having the clearance results for the gym by Monday, October 7, 2024 so this space will remain closed off for access until test results are received. Given the results we have received thus far, we are confident that we will open the majority of the spaces on Monday, October 7, 2024, with plans for an alternative location for in-person learning for some of the students if we do not have all the spaces cleared by Monday, October 7, 2024. We will share final plans on Friday, October 4, 2024 with the planned locations.

Remediation Efforts
As we shared in our previous letter, the remediation process, to include cleaning efforts, is underway and anticipated to continue through the next couple of days, ahead of schedule. Please know that as cleaning is being completed, clearance testing is being conducted to confirm that the remediation efforts were effective in removing lead-containing dust. Clearance testing has to be completed and results verified to meet acceptable thresholds prior to the reopening of the school. Please see the diagram of the spaces that have been cleaned and cleared as of this afternoon, October 2, 2024. For additional context related to the diagram, please note that green-shaded spaces indicate cleaning and testing has been completed and these spaces are ready for occupancy as results came back below the detectable threshold. Yellow-shaded spaces indicate cleaning has been completed and we are awaiting the results of final clearance testing; red-shaded spaces indicate that cleaning has yet to occur and clearance testing has not been conducted.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
We have prepared a list of frequently asked questions which can be found on the Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School Status FAQs webpage. Please note that this page will be updated as new information becomes available.

Parent-Teacher Conferences
All parent-teacher conferences will continue to be held virtually this Friday, October 4, 2024 . As we shared, teachers will collaborate with families to hold previously scheduled conferences in a virtual format. Your student’s teacher will communicate this information through ParentSquare. 

Food Resources
To support families with nutritional needs, we have collaborated with our community partners ALIVE! and Alexandria Redevelopment Housing Authority for food distribution on Friday, October 4, 2024 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at the 1200 Block of Wythe Street in the Andrew Atkins neighborhood.

Also view the ALIVE! flier for hours of operation of its food hubs in Del Ray and on the West End. The food hubs are open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Contact Information
Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to resolve this issue and prepare Brooks for a safe reopening. 

Please contact the Alexandria Health Department for health guidance at 703-746-4988.

For additional information or questions about the school, please contact ask@acps.k12.va.us or visit the dedicated Naomi L. Brooks School Status Update webpage. 

Sincerely,
Dr. Alicia Hart
Chief Operating Officer

Dr. Melanie Kay-Wyatt
Superintendent

Dear Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School Staff and Families,

As we continue to address the potential lead exposure situation at Naomi L. Brooks (Brooks) Elementary School, we are writing to provide you with some important updates and additional resources.

Additionally, AHD is securing staff and resources to provide testing to students, faculty and staff from Naomi L. Brooks this week. Details will be shared as soon as possible. Please stay tuned to the Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School Status Update webpage for more details on testing from AHD.

For additional information or questions about the school, please contact Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) at ask@acps.k12.va.us.

As we learn more about this situation, we will continue to provide updates to keep you informed. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate this situation together as our top priority remains the health and well-being of our students and staff.

Dear Naomi L. Brooks Families and Staff,

As promised, we are writing with an update to Principal Hess’ letter sent yesterday evening regarding the lead exposure at Naomi L. Brooks (Brooks) during the school’s window replacement project. Due to the time necessary to clean all spaces within the building, the school will remain closed for students and staff on September 30 and October 1, 2024. This is in addition to the scheduled school closure from October 2-4, 2024. We will aim to provide another update on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, on the school’s status. 

Remediation Efforts

The remediation process, to include cleaning efforts, is being mobilized today and anticipated to continue throughout the next week. Once cleaning is completed, clearance testing will be conducted to confirm that the remediation efforts were effective in removing lead-containing dust. Clearance testing has to be completed and results verified to meet acceptable thresholds prior to the reopening of the school.

Alexandria Health Department Guidance

This morning, we met with the Alexandria Health Department (AHD) that has provided the guidance below and in an attachment for staff and families. The information provided by AHD at the end of this letter includes valuable information and resources related to lead safety and health effects.

Emergency Closure Learning Activities

The Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) team has planned for days when in-person instruction may not be possible. Our goal is to support the continuity of learning for our students.  The asynchronous learning activities provided on the Naomi L. Brooks Emergency Closure Learning Activities webpage are listed by grade level and language (English, Spanish, Amharic and Arabic). The learning opportunities provide students with practice, apply key academic skills and promote movement, self-expression, creativity, civic engagement, and language development. This packet includes Learning Board Activities. 

Students should share and review their choices with an adult and complete five activities each day. Students should circle the activities on the learning board as they complete each one to help them keep track of their progress. Your student’s teachers will be available via email and ParentSquare to assist with questions from families. Lastly, students should submit their work to their teacher when they return to school for attendance-taking purposes. If there is an activity on a given day that your child is not interested in or does not have materials for, you may replace it with a choice from a different day on the learning board. 

If you would like to access additional extension activities, select from the Family Learning Resources Page list included in this packet and visit the ACPS website for even more activities. https://www.acps.k12.va.us/families/learning-activities-list

For families that wish to pick up a printed copy of the choice board pertaining to their child’s grade level, we have made copies available for pickup at the following locations:

1. Charles Houston Recreation Center, 901 Wythe St, Alexandria, VA 22314

2. Kate Waller Barrett Branch Library, 717 Queen Street, Alexandria, VA 22314

Parent-Teacher Conferences

Please note that given the school closure for next week, all parent-teacher conferences will be held virtually. Teachers will collaborate with families to hold previously scheduled conferences in a virtual format. Your student’s teacher will communicate this information through ParentSquare. 

Food Resources

To support families with nutritional needs next week, we will be distributing grab and go breakfast and lunch for Brooks families at Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School located at 1501 Cameron Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. For families interested in picking up meals, here is the information for meal distribution:

• Please go to Door 7 for meal pickup

• Breakfast pickup hours: 7:40 a.m.-8:10 a.m.

• Lunch pickup hours: 10 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

In addition, our community partner ALIVE! has a scheduled food distribution tomorrow, September 28, 2024. Please see details below:

Walk-up Only:

• Leonard “Chick” Armstrong Recreation Center (25 West Reed Ave) Next to Cora Kelly Elementary School

• William Ramsay Rec Center (5650 Sanger Ave)

View the ALIVE! flier for more information about its food hubs in Del Ray and on the West End.

Information on Chromebooks

At this time, we are unable to allow families to retrieve Chromebooks at the school given our focus on remediation in the building. While we know this may pose an inconvenience, we hope that the printed copies that we have made available to families will assist given that students do not have access to their Chromebooks.

Contact Information

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to resolve this issue and prepare Brooks for a safe reopening. 

Please contact the Alexandria Health Department for health guidance at 703-746-4988.

For additional information or questions about the school, please contact AskACPS@acps.k12.va.us or visit the dedicated Naomi L. Brooks School Status Update webpage. 

Sincerely,

Dear Naomi L. Brooks Community,

Alexandria Health Department would like to share some guidance and educational resources regarding potential lead exposure.

Lead exposure commonly happens when people put items containing lead in their mouths or when people breathe in lead dust in the air. If people - especially very young children and pregnant people - are exposed to lead, they can face harmful effects.

The only way to know if someone has lead in their blood is to take a test. You can get a test and health guidance through a health care provider. If you do not have a medical provider, call the Alexandria Health Department at 703.746.4988. An immediate emergency room or urgent care visit is not necessary for testing.

The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) provides lead safety information that is available in various languages: VDH Lead Safe Educational Materials.

Find additional information about preventing childhood lead poisoning from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Preventing Childhood Lead Poisoning.

For more information on the lead and health, visit the Virginia Department of Health’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program or call Alexandria Health Department’s call center during normal business hours at 703.746.4988.

Sincerely,

David C. Rose, MD, MBA, FAAP
Director
Alexandria Health Department

View Guidance

Important Health Update and School Closure on 9/27/24

Dear Naomi L. Brooks Families and Staff,

We are writing to inform you about a situation that came to our attention regarding a concern that appropriate mitigation efforts had not been followed by a contractor performing work at the school for window replacement that began last Friday evening. After thorough investigation, we learned today that our environmental contractor has identified lead particles in a kindergarten classroom (Room 2), a fourth grade classroom (Room 18), the main office suite and the clinic. 

As a precautionary measure, we are closing the school tomorrow, September 27, 2024 to ensure the safety and well-being of our students and staff. An environmental cleaning contractor will conduct comprehensive remediation cleaning in the affected areas tomorrow. While general cleaning has already occurred, this cleaning is essential in ensuring all residue has been removed.

To support families and staff, we have contacted the Alexandria Health Department (AHD) for guidance and next steps. AHD can provide valuable information and resources related to lead safety and health effects. Once we receive the guidance to share with staff and families, we will share the details. 

As we learn more about this deeply concerning matter, the Department of Facilities & Operations will provide a more detailed update to families and staff. I understand that you may have many questions regarding this matter, as do I, and I will be working in tandem with the Department of Facilities & Operations on the remediation and communication efforts.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to resolve this issue and prepare our affected classrooms and offices for next week.

Sincerely,

Suzanne Hess
Principal, Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School