West Contra Costa Unified School District Board of Education - Regular Meeting

I gave him, I gave her his too.

So we, actually. Just watch.

It would have been kind of nice if we could see what's behind us.

You have enough juice?

I may be able to send it. I got it. Okay, you got it? Okay. What's your daughter right now? She's still in Los Angeles. She's going to be there until the end of the month. She's what? In Los Angeles. She's working with the Justice Corps at the Superior Court. Oh, cool. That's right, because she's P-Law. Well, she's... She wants to.

Well, she's taking the all-out and not quite getting the score. She's simply like five, six points on the score she wants.

Yeah. Yeah. But she's coming back a little bit now. Okay, yay! That's the full year. Yay!

I'm sure she talks to you all the time, right?

No. No?

Well, I thought, you know, have you gone down there and treated her dinner at all?

Yes. Until recently, I was going down there once a month to check in with Stacy and Gianna. But as of July 1st, that didn't cut. I think this is what I should be seeing right now. This is quote-unquote mine.

This mic is hot.

Are you on a local network? Maybe I should connect to the screen. Oh, there it is.

Yes. Yes, thank you.

Here we go.

Good evening, everybody. Thank you for being here tonight. My name is David Luongo. I'm the new principal here at Kennedy High School. We really want to take a moment to appreciate our students that are here tonight, our family members, our staff, the community as a large, all the different support groups that are here. Thank you very much for being here and supporting this conversation. Also wanna thank all of our guests that are joining us online tonight too. We know there's a lot of people out there that are really interested in what we're talking about and care deeply about Kennedy High School. So thank you all for being here in person and for joining us virtually online tonight. We're gonna begin with a welcome from our superintendent, Cheryl Cotton.

Good evening, everyone. So glad that we are all here in support and in service of our students from Kennedy High School. Very excited and so appreciative that we're all here. Those folks who are outside and standing around, come on in and have a seat. Come close. We would love for you to be close. Looking forward to an evening where we are able to learn what's going on, a very clear understanding of the challenges that we're facing as well as how we're going to move forward from this. I'm really excited about being able to see our way through our challenges. Thank you. Oh, there you go. I also want to take a moment to acknowledge some of our dignitaries who are in the room, and if I've missed anyone, give a wave when I get to the end. How about that? First, I'd like to acknowledge our board president, Guadalupe Añana.

You guys can come on down front.

Our board president, Guadalupe Añana, is here, as well as our board clerk, Demetrio Gonzalez. Paso, I haven't seen her in house, but I'm sure she is online. Our board trustee, Cynthia Hernandez. Nope, she's walking in the door as well. Thank you. Trustee Leslie Reckler is here as well. As well as trustee Jamila Smith-Bowles, who I believe is watching online tonight. We also have our city of Richmond mayor, Eduardo Martinez. I know that Mayor Martinez is here. There he is. We have City Councilmember Doria Robinson. Thank you. And City Councilmember Cesar Zapata. Timothy Simmons, Chief of Richmond Police Department is here. There he is. We also have Abel Pineda here. He's a field representative for our State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond, from the California Department of Education. We also have Gabe Sandoval, a representative from State Senator Jesse Arguin's office. We also have Dante Miguel, District Director in our County Supervisor John Joya's office. Davis Okonkwo. manager within the Contra Costa Public Health Community Wellness and Prevention Program, as well as Marcus Walton, representing the Contra Costa County Office of Education. I know that there are more dignitaries in this room, more elected officials, more folks who are here in service and in support Thank you very much. Sue Wilson, council member for the City of Richmond. Anyone else? Thank you for that. I appreciate that this is not an event where we are applauding folks. This is not what this is about tonight, and I appreciate that. This is a very serious event and a very serious meeting. But I also want the community to know who is here to support you. There are a lot of folks who are here to support you. I want to acknowledge the most important dignitaries who are in the building today, and those are our students. Can I have my Kennedy students please stand up? Thank you. That's why we're here. We're here in support of our students. every agency that is here, the school district, as well as so many different community partners who are here to make sure that your education is outstanding this year. With that, I'm going to pass the mic. I'm sorry. Let me also acknowledge our dignitaries, our parents. Where are my Kennedy parents and Kennedy alumni who are here tonight? I wanted to mention alumni as well because we are all here in support of Kennedy High School, our Kennedy Eagles. Passing the mic right now to Jeff Carter, my colleague.

Before we do that, real quick.

Thank you.

Just a quick overview for this evening. We're going to spend a little bit of time hearing from our different panelists about the information that we're learning about pertaining to Kennedy. And then we're going to shift into a question and answer component. And that's really going to be the focus of this evening. So we'll be taking questions both in person here.

We have a couple of mics set up. I'll talk folks through that later, if folks in the audience would like to ask questions. And then for folks who are watching virtually tonight, There's an opportunity, there's a QR code posted on the YouTube link to be able to ask questions and then those will also be shared this evening so that the panel can address some of those questions as well. We realize we may not be able to get to everybody's question this evening. We will be ending at 8 o'clock, but we will do our best. We'll alternate between folks who are here present in the room and folks who are asking questions online. And we appreciate that folks are really engaging in this process. And then we'll also be creating an FAQ for folks to get some more answers to things that we're not able to address tonight and also related to the questions that come up tonight. Speak up is what I'm being told. So before we jump into the information, I'd just like to take a moment and have our panelists introduce themselves with their name and the organization they're representing. So we'll start here at the end of the table.

Good evening, everyone. Can you hear me? I can hear myself. My name is Ian Utz. I'm a senior scientist with the Department of Toxic Substances Control, and thank you very much for having us tonight.

I am Claudio Sorrentino. I'm a senior toxicologist for Northern California with the Department of Toxic Substances Control.

Again, my name is Cheryl Cotton. I'm superintendent of the West Contra Costa Unified School District.

Good evening. My name is Jeff Carter. I'm the Interim Associate Superintendent of West Contra Costa Unified School District.

Good evening. My name is LaShonda White, Deputy City Manager over Community Services, City of Richmond, and welcome to the Richmond Auditorium.

Good evening. Nikki Masday, Deputy City Manager of Internal Services for the City of Richmond.

And at this time we'll turn it over to the Assistant Superintendent of Business Services, Jeff Carter, to give us some more information from West Contra Costa Unified School District.

Thank you, David. Good evening. So in response to a recommendation by the DTSC, our school board approved underground soil testing at our July 15th board meeting. Those test results were provided to the executive team of West Contra Costa Unified on July 31st. We received those preliminary results, and they showed varying levels of PCE underground in the soil underneath the Kennedy High School campus. In order to learn more, we have also scheduled further testing of indoor and outdoor air sampling. Those started today and tomorrow. Saturday, August 8th, we are collecting sub-slab vapor samples. And then on August 12th, next Wednesday, the lab results are expected to be returned. And then on August 13th, next Thursday, we will have meetings to review those preliminary results. The test results will be evaluated and analyzed by all parties using a standard risk assessment procedures. And we are planning for no delays to the start of the school year for Kennedy High School. The test results will help us determine where we open for the start of school. And some of those possible other school sites for temporary relocation include Contra Costa College, the Craneway Pavilion, some of our other district site location campuses and properties, as well as some other real estate options in our area. So we're actively working on securing and identifying the best option for our students in order for them to have a strong and safe start to the school year.

Next slide.

This is a map, this is an aerial view of our Kennedy campus. We did soil testing around the perimeter of the campus, and then we are continuing to do those indoor, outdoor, and sub-slab vapor samples in the coming week. With that, I will pass it over to Ian from DTSC to talk about their perspective.

Hello again, everyone. I'll try not to yell this time. So public safety is our top priority as DTSC continues to work closely with the West Contra Costa Unified School District and the City of Richmond. Based on current information, DTSC does not believe there is an immediate risk to the community. Sampling is underway and results will guide possible next steps. To this point, we have not collected evidence that contamination has moved from the soil to the air inside Kennedy High School buildings. Ongoing tests will show if tetrachloroethylene, PCE, its acronym, detected in soil has made its way into the indoor air. If that is the case, additional steps may be warranted. In the meantime, DTSC continues its investigation to determine the source of the contamination and the extent of impacts both on the school site and the surrounding neighborhood. And I do want to add, we care very much about this community and we really appreciate you welcoming us into your community. We care very much about the students, the parents, the teachers, and we're happy to be here tonight. Okay, I think I have to pass it off to LaShonda White at the city.

Next slide, unless you wanted to talk about vapor intrusion.

Oh, for Claudio.

What you see behind you is a diagram of what happens to contaminants once they get into the soil and groundwater. If they are volatile, like this contaminant called PCE is, then they can generate vapors. Those vapors, as you can see in this small inlet, go in between soil particles and can move up and if to the cracks or to other opening the slab and get inside buildings. So, but at the same time, these contaminants are not only in the, for example, in this case, in the soil underground, but the same chemicals, we found them in consumer products and also in the air outside. So what we are trying to do now is to understand if the chemical PC from underground has moved inside. At the moment, we have no indication that that has occurred, but that's why we're doing the sampling, to make sure that that did not occur.

Thank you, DTSC. Again, my name is LaShonda White, Deputy City Manager for Community Services. I am here with the other Deputy City Manager, Nikki Mastay. And again, on behalf of the Richmond City Council and the City Manager, Shasa Curl, I want to welcome everyone again to the Richmond Auditorium. And thank you for being here with us this evening. I also want to take a minute to thank WCCUSD and DTSC for the information they have shared thus far and for their continued participation with the city. in partnership with the city and our community. As you've heard this evening, there's still information being gathered and information being evaluated. From the city's perspective, our focus is on supporting students, families, and the broader Richmond community, while also working to maintain important city services during this period of uncertainty. Young people are at the heart of our community, and their safety, health, and well-being remain a shared priority. We appreciate our continued partnership with the district and DTSC and will continue collaborating across agencies to help address the needs of the community. As additional testing is completed, the city will rely on the results, regulatory guidance, and technical expertise provided by DTSC and the appropriate experts to help inform any future city decisions. In the meantime, we will stay engaged, we will ask questions, and communicate verified information as it becomes available. Consistent with the precautionary approach taken by the district. The city also made the aligned decision to temporarily restrict access to the Richmond swim center out of abundance of caution. Next slide please. I'm here. I'd like to briefly share what that decision means for the Richmond swim center. And importantly, what we are doing to continue to provide aquatic services to our community. And we do have two pools in the city of Richmond. We have the Richmond swim center and we have the Richmond plunge. Staff have worked really hard, and I want to thank recreation staff, aquatic staff in particular. They've worked really hard to move all the registered swim classes from the swim center to the plunge to fit within the programming that we already have. Communication to registered swim lesson participants through registration is ongoing. And we have expanded access, so effective August 5th, the plunge expanded its hours to seven days a week, so open Monday through Sunday. We've added Tuesday and Thursday mornings and Sunday operations and extended weekday hours to more closely align with the Richmond Swim Center schedule. Aquatics and Recreation staff are relocating swim classes and communicating with participants while we are preparing for our 100th anniversary, so we invite you all to come out and join us on August 15th. We will continue to work with the district to determine when we can reopen the swim center based on the data we receive. With that, that concludes our portion of the presentation, and I'll turn it back over to district staff for the next Q&A portion.

Thank you to our panelists for presenting some information this evening. We know that really tonight is about the questions that you all have, whether you're here in the room with us right now or if you're at home.

So we would encourage anybody that's here tonight, you can see there's two mics, two standing mics just on the outside of the aisles. You're welcome to walk up to either of the mics. I'll just alternate from side to side as people have questions. If nobody has a question in the room, we'll just continue to take the questions that are online. So while folks are getting ready and lining up at the mics in the room, I'll turn it over to our assistant superintendent, Liz Sanders, to share our first question from our online audience.

Thank you very much, Principal Luongo. We do want to emphasize to folks who are tuning in online, you are welcome to use this QR code and contribute your questions in whatever language they might be, and we are live translating them here. One question that we have, which may be for our colleagues at DTSC. If PCE is water soluble, what is the mechanism that is breaking the water and PCE bond? Does it flash at atmospheric temperature or is there a temperature element that breaks the bond? I think this is a very specific question that's probably trying to get at a sense of what is PCE, how does it dissipate, is that the right word?

PCE degrades very slowly in the environment and can happen both

through physical degradation and through some bacteria. These bacteria, microorganisms, sometimes can be very rare to some of the steps, but it degrades both in groundwater and in the air, but it's very, very slow.

Okay, next question, gentleman to my left, and then we'll come gentleman to my right, and then we'll go back online.

Good evening. Can you hear me? There you go, good evening. My name is Dr. Reginald D. Walter, and I am a alumnus of Kennedy High, the greatest class that ever graduated in the class of 1994. However, I have several, I have a multi-pronged question, if you will. My first question is, how long ago was the PCE detected? The second question that I raise is how was the community informed prior to this town hall? And the third question that I raise is what ramifications for the students that have been on campus recently What are we going to do about those exposures? And how can we better rectify this, not only on the campus of Kennedy High, but on all of our schools, both elementary, middle, and high schools throughout the West Contra Costa Unified School District? Thank you.

Thank you. Stay at the mic for just a sec so I make sure we get all of your questions, because I think the first question I heard was around hearing, when did the district find out about the potential concern that's now been raised. Correct. Yeah. So is that Jeff going to be you?

So I'll answer the first part of that. The district found out July 31st. I'll let Ian from DTSC talk about when it was found out in the soil in the area.

within hours of the district. So July 31st, a few days ago, is when we received the lab results from the school district.

So last Thursday, correct? That's Friday. Last Friday, thank you.

So that's, does that answer your first question?

That answers my first question.

That's for the soil at Kennedy High Campus.

understood, but what about other campuses in the school district or other areas in the city of Richmond?

I'll provide a little bit of context. These are really good questions. I'm going to try and answer them. If I don't, please let me know so I can try to remember.

Understood.

Okay, so how is the community informed was your second question.

That is correct. But can you go back to that first question? The first question, sure. The follow-up question to the first question. Sure, sure. In the area, when were you informed?

So PCE we know is in groundwater, not at the campus. We don't have any groundwater data in the campus. We have soil gas data. But in the neighborhood, the state has been investigating PCE in groundwater for about 20 years. In soil gas, the city has been supporting us in collecting soil gas data within the streets, below the streets rather. within the last several years. And so those investigations have unfolded in various places over time, expanded to include additional areas of the neighborhood. And it was in about April of this year, April 2026, that the state became aware of data that was collected within about 500 feet of the campus. And so it was in June that we met with the school district, provided recommendations to test, the testing then happened in July, and then we got the results at the end of July. So does that kind of answer your question about what we've known?

That answers the first question.

Next question was around communication from the school district, if I heard correctly, about tonight's community meeting or how it was communicated to the community.

Correct.

I'm actually going to assistant superintendent Liz Sanders on that piece.

Thank you for the question. Tonight's meeting, it's tricky to find a place where I'm not causing feedback. One moment, I'm gonna walk towards you. Tonight's meeting was communicated to families via Parent Square, which is our primary mode of communicating with our families. that uses all of our student contact data that's in our student information system. It is not opt-in, so it's our most efficient way to make sure that we, and most equitable way to make sure that we get to all families. It also translates into our families' home languages. This was also advertised on our district social media. moving forward we also have a landing page on our district website where we will be publishing every single thing that we publish about this issue so that our community can follow along thank you kindly and then was there one more piece at the end there there's one more piece but i just something else just clicked in my mind just got to be mindful that we've got a lot of other folks so do that do your third one and then we'll we can circle back around to

Third, well, the piece that just came to my mind, is there any mechanism with the city of Richmond, because this chemical has been found in dry cleaners, is there a mechanism to go back over the history and find out where dry cleaners were located in the city to try to help in the research as we move forward of finding potential spots?

Got it. And that's probably going to be our DSLA folks. Sorry, I don't know. Thank you, yeah.

So the question is, is there a way for the city, you asked the city, but I think the question can be asked of anyone, right? Can we go back and look for other dry cleaners that may also have caused a release like this, right? And the answer is yes. And we are aware of other dry cleaners in Richmond as throughout the bay area and the state that have very similar contamination and so unfortunately this is not an unusual type of contamination to come from from former dry cleaners and there are absolutely ways to to look into that and we already are aware of several because of you know various investigations that have happened over time in other neighborhoods As for the specifics of how to fund that, I can't speak to that for the city. I know that it's something the state is actively trying to address, and it's a very difficult problem to address. So it's a very good question.

All right. Coming over to the right-hand side, and then we'll take an online question. Mike might not be on.

My name is Don Gosney, class of 1972 at Kennedy High School. Considering that they started building Kennedy High School in 1964 and before that they started building Granada Junior High School in 1957. I said before that it was farmland.

Thank you.

So, oh much better. I love you Liz. Do we know where the toxins actually came from? That's question number one. Second, where on campus did you find the toxins? Are they all over campus? Are they segregated to a specific location? How large are the areas? Bigger than a bread box? Size of a football field? And what mitigations are you going to do to remove it? Or are we going to demand that the district do to remove it?

Thank you. So we'll start with DTSC on this response.

Before you, oh, I was gonna say before you leave, I wanted to write your final question. Your fourth question was after the sighs.

Done, I got you.

Was remediation the question? Mitigation. Mitigation. What can be done?

The question, what kind of mitigation factors do you suggest and who's going to be responsible for this? I mean, a lot of times you're digging up the soil, you're taking the contaminated soil down to a toxic waste site down by Bakersfield. What is the plan to fix the problem?

Those are all great questions as well. The short answer to your first question, which was when was it released at the school, or when did it arrive at the school and migrate, we don't know. You know, we know some things, right? We know that the chemical has, you know, became widely used beginning in the 40s, 50s. That doesn't tell us necessarily when it was released into the environment. So it's not until, you know, Friday of last week that we became aware of data within the school site. And so to answer your second question, or your third question about the size, the extent of the impacts. The data that we reviewed was six locations within the school, which were mostly located along Cutting Boulevard along the north and 45th Street along the east. So kind of the north and the northeast portion of the campus. And it was detected in, I believe, five of those six locations. So it's the northeast portion of the campus. That's preliminary data, right? And it's also six locations. So this is a 30-acre site. And so I can't give you an understanding at this point yet about the size, the scope of the soil gas plume within the high school. But six data points is a very good starting point. The larger plume, we suspect this may be connected to a larger plume in the neighborhood, COVERS ABOUT A .7 MILE LENGTH. THAT'S KIND OF WHAT WE'RE LOOKING AT. SO I CAN'T, AGAIN, I CAN'T GIVE YOU, YOU KNOW, WE DON'T KNOW THE, WE WOULD CALL IT THE LATERAL OR THE VERTICAL EXTENT OF THE IMPACTS YET. BUT WITHIN THE SCHOOL SITE WE'RE ONLY AWARE OF SOME DATA THAT'S BEEN COLLECTED IN THE NORTHEAST PORTION OF THE SCHOOL. So in terms of mitigation, it really depends on what buildings you're talking about, right? And first of all, mitigation is informed by the data. And so right now we're looking at a preliminary data set with six locations. But the indoor air investigation is going to be even more comprehensive, right? We're going to understand... if it's even coming into indoor air in the first place. I think an earlier member of the public used the word exposure, and we're not aware of an exposure at this time, right? Because we know it's underground, but we don't know if it's coming into the indoor air where it can be breathed. And so the mitigation step, that question can really, really begins to be answered when we have information about where it's actually impacted. If you have new buildings, there are ways to design the new buildings as I believe the school district is in the process of doing for the new buildings that are being built on the campus to mitigate, to prevent the vapors from coming inside the building. There are various ways to do that engineering-wise. In existing buildings, you can retrofit them. There are ways to retrofit them. You can also use air purifiers with activated carbon. You can use epoxy flooring. It really depends on the situation of the building that we're talking about and whether there's actually vapor intrusion, which is where the vapors are coming from the subsurface to the indoor air.

I think you covered the bulk of it, yeah. So we're going to go to Ms. Sanders again for an online question and then we'll come back to the mics and I'll come over to the left here next after our online question. And thank you folks for these questions. These are great questions. We really appreciate it.

Mr. Luongo, our next question from online asks about the decision-making authority and process. Mr. Carter, if you'd be able to share a little bit about who made the decision to restrict entry to the Kennedy campus, who has the authority to make that, and who was consulted in that process?

Yeah, the authority to make that decision lies with the superintendent. It is a board policy. The executive team found out on Friday. We've met with multiple agencies by Monday morning and the executive cabinet as well as with the city of Richmond and DTSC ultimately made that determination and decision together to close access to the site facility.

And just to add, this is pending additional testing. And so we have started, as Jeff has shared, we started indoor testing, outdoor testing. We will be doing additional soil slab testing as well. They've expedited this work. We should be getting results early next week. And that will continue to inform our decision making. So it's based on what we know. But understanding where we stand right now, it is important that because we know what's going on, and we know a little bit, we need to know more before we can take steps to mitigate this problem. That's where we are focused right now, gathering information so that we can make the best and safest choices for our students and our staff and our community.

Our guest over to the left.

I'm sorry, real quick, if I could just add. Oh, excuse me. Sorry about that. No, it's okay. So just to clarify, we have been at the table with the district and DTSC getting this information and making decisions. The district, the superintendent and her cabinet, as stated, made the decision to around the Kennedy High School campus. The city, because we operate the swim center on the campus, made the decision for the swim center. So separately, but in collaboration with one another, made the decision to restrict access to both of those facilities. Thank you.

Okay, our guest over to the left.

Good afternoon. My name is Coretta Harris, and I'm an alumnus, class of 1978, and my father's name is on the football field. So I'm not a resident of Richmond anymore. But we do own a house behind Richmond. And I happen to be here visiting and I saw this issue on the news. So I'm hoping that the city can do a little bit better job informing the residents of what's going on at Kennedy. so that we can be informed, especially if this is something potentially that can affect the radius right around the school. I share the same concern as my fellow alumnus. about where you had the testing. I didn't hear the size of the area that you tested. I just heard you tested in a few different spots around the school. Can you talk a little bit more about the square footage of the area that you tested, if it was where the science building used to be, you know, as it was mentioned, I think, by my fellow alum? That property used to be government property years and years ago, and so for this to come up 60 years later, I find it quite intriguing.

Thank you. And we'll start with DTSC? Yeah.

Would you mind if I ask for clarification? Are you asking the size of the testing area within the school or the larger neighborhood around the school?

The size of the area. You said you tested in different spots around the school. What is the soil size? Is it a few square feet? I'm trying to get an understanding of the depth of the problem.

So within the school, it's six locations right along the northeast. But then basically, I mean, I can't speak from acreage. I don't know that off the top of my head. But I mentioned about a mile, 0.7 miles of area had been tested. And so that extends from about Nevin Avenue in the north along San Pablo. down to the southwest toward Cutting, which is where the school is. So that's the general area. Does that answer your question?

No, I was asking the question at the school. What was the testing? Like the area. You said you tested in six areas at the school?

You're asking the size of the testing location?

Yes.

Oh, I understand. Okay. I'm so sorry. Thank you. That's my fault. I wasn't listening correctly. The testing locations are soil gas wells. They're very small testing locations and they're designed to be representative of the soil gas conditions immediately around where they're being tested. They're quite small. You basically drill a hole that's less than a foot in diameter, very small, and then you'll install the sole vapor probe there. Those wells are quite small. The actual individual testing locations are quite small, if that's what you're asking. But they are used to, you know, they're collecting data from about five feet below ground surface. So within the school and then around the school, the depth that's being represented is about five feet. There are some places where there are deeper wells in addition. And it's been a bit difficult to collect data in that deeper location because of because of the geologic conditions, the soil might be tight or it might be very moist. So we have tried to test kind of deeper as well in the soil gas, but really when it applies to this conversation we're having today about what risk does it pose to the indoor air, that five foot depth is a really good starting point. Does that answer your question?

Yes, it does. And just one follow-up question. Because construction is taking place, that was kind of the onus for doing the testing? Sorry, one more time. Because construction is taking place? I mean, there's never been a reason to test before because we have buildings.

You're asking basically, is this related to the construction work, right? Yes. So the answer is no. This is not necessarily a standard thing to test for. The school district worked with us. very fast to do the testing that we recommended when we approached them which just happens to be right when this construction was starting and so it's not necessarily you know it doesn't relate to the construction process this is something that was more related to when we reached out right when we did and and that was based on when we had data that was you know within a certain distance of the school

Okay. I'll stop for now. I could go on. But this is very interesting. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And over to the right.

Can I jump in about outreach? Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. Sorry, LaSamba here. If I could just jump in about outreach. I do hear the comment and respect it around how are we getting information out of the city about this topic. So we are working really closely with the school district. And as the district is providing information, We are sharing it as well on our various platforms within the city. We have also shared the information with the presidents of the numerous neighborhood councils that surround the Kennedy High School site in hopes that the neighborhood councils can get to the residents within their neighborhoods to share information. I know the district put out a media advisory in hopes that the media would take up the story and share it so that community members could know what was happening and could know about this meeting and be in attendance. So we're happy you were able to receive it. But as a city, we will continue to work with the district, continue to put out information, factual information, to hopefully share and spread the news so our residents are aware of what's going on. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, over here.

Good evening. My name is Dr. Francisco Ortiz. I'm a district alumni and district parent and president of United Teachers of Richmond. And I have a series of questions. The first one is, did the DTSC or city of Richmond require the temporary closure of Kennedy High School? And if not, what evidence led to that determination? What health or environmental thresholds were used to justify the closing of the campus? And are those thresholds publicly available? If those same thresholds were identified at another school site tomorrow, would the district close that campus as well? And finally, can the district explain how it knows what other Richmond schools do not require the same level of environmental investigation as Kennedy? If that determination has not yet been made, will the district commit tonight to developing and publicly releasing a district-wide environmental assessment plan?

You want to start there, and then we'll go down the line.

So the answer to the question, I'm going to try and remember it again. Please feel free to repeat. I want to answer your questions. The answer is no, DTSC did not require, and to my knowledge, the city didn't require, well, the city can make decisions for the property that it manages, but for DTSC, we are in a consultative role, and so we're helping interpret the data that they've collected with us, right? So Superintendent Cotton helped make a risk-informed decision based on the soil gas data that was collected at the site. In terms of the thresholds, it's actually a good segue question because, yes, the thresholds are publicly available. There's standard thresholds that we use throughout the state of California. They're the most stringent thresholds that we do use. They're for residential scenarios where someone would be on that property, right, breathing air for a lifetime, right, 350 days a year, 70 years. So it's really conservative assumptions that we use when setting those thresholds. And DTSC helps set those thresholds with the help of other public health agencies. And so those thresholds are, you know, the ones that were used in this case were for soil gas In this case, the available information that the district made a decision with was that soil gas data, which was collected, was above the residential screening levels at the number of the soil gas wells. That doesn't mean that there is an exposure in indoor air. It means that that's when we investigate further. And that's why indoor air testing is warranted. So it's a first step is collecting the soil gas data. And that's another good segue to these other schools that you're asking about. It's a very fair question. We want to protect all of the schools in the district, in the state, all of our schools. In this case, we reached out to the school district when we did because we had data that was near the school. And so we had reason to approach the school district and say, based on the data that's been collected near the school, we can't rule out that the school property might have detectable levels in the soil gas. And so we recommend you test just to rule it out, right? And so now we move on to the next step. Now that we know it's in the soil gas, we can test the indoor air, and that's what's going on right now. And so I can't, I can allow the superintendent to speak to how decisions will be made in the future, but DTSU consistently, we use a very standardized, publicly available, transparent decision framework, right? Science informed framework on what to do next, and it allows us to make some recommendations, but we're not the decision makers, right? So we're the scientists who can help inform that decision being made. So, as for other schools, I think, There's a side to the question which is testing without any data, no reason to test, basically. Or there's situations, as in this case, where we had some information that led us to recommend testing. And that's usually our role is to say, we have data that you may want to test. The testing is very expensive. And while it is helpful, it's extremely complex many times. And so it's not that we have immediate answers. It does require a lot of evaluation. And I don't say that to discourage this collection of data elsewhere. I'm just saying that's usually how we come about collecting this data. It's not necessarily collected everywhere. Does that answer your questions?

Yeah. And then the last one was, can the district explain how it knows that other Richmond schools may not require the same level of environmental investigation as Kennedy? Is there a plan to ensure that does happen?

I think as Ian shared, we were approached by a state agency with data that we acted on immediately. Without data to fully understand that, I'm not sure. If those levels, if we do have data that is collected that shows similar situations, absolutely. This is not an isolated response. This is a response to information that we have that we want. We're recommended to gather more information. And in doing that, we also recognize that we are very close to the start of the school year for our students. And as such, that decision around how do we make sure that school continues for our kids in safe ways That was a decision that was made based on information and data that we have right now. I can't speak to places that we haven't collected any data and we don't have any information. But definitely when there is a concern that is either brought to the district or the district is aware of, we will take action to make sure that our school community is safe.

Any other panelists? Thanks. Okay. Ms. Sanders?

Thank you very much, Mr. Blanco. Our next question from online is please describe what year this specific PCE plume was first detected in the City of Richmond, what community meetings have occurred, and whether there's been any residential ear testing. That may be specific for our DTSC colleagues first.

Can you repeat the second part of the question?

Sure. The first part was what year the specific PCU plume was first detected in the city of Richmond. The second may be for the city regarding community meetings and what community meetings have occurred. And the third aspect of that question was whether there's been any residential air testing.

I'll take this. The way the question is asked, I understand the question is basically for the city as a whole. I can't answer that question as to when was the first time PCE was detected in the city. For this neighborhood, in the plume that we believe this to sort of be a part of, based on current information. That data was collected in the groundwater in the early 2000s. I may misspeak, but I believe it was the early 2000s, 2001, 2002. And I believe it came to our attention in something like 2005. And so that came to our attention sort of as part of another investigation of another site. as part of a redevelopment project in the Mira Flores housing development, which is about half a mile to the northeast. And so that's the first time in this area that I know of that it was detected. I think the community meeting's question might be someone else.

Yeah, Siddy.

I can answer some of that. My colleague, Lena Velasco, has been the main person in the city and she's out of the country, not able to be here today. That has been the main point of contact on the city side for Mayor Flores. What I do know, because I've seen lot of information on a website on DTSC they have a website that collects all of the information all of the reports all of the meetings that have happened around Mira Flores there have been numerous meetings around Mira Flores meetings within the community there have been reports everything is listed and I don't know if Ian you can specify where individuals can find that information, and we can also post where that information is located, but it is a repository of all of the meetings and data that was collected around Mira Flores that can give individuals who are interested some insight onto the history of that, but I don't have additional specific information.

I just want to say that I'm hearing that folks on Zoom are having a difficult time hearing you. So speaking up louder. I'm often guilty of that myself. So speaking up louder on the mic so that folks on YouTube can hear you. Okay. Thank you.

So I know the most recent community meeting that DTSC held was in March of 2025. And so that was focused on the groundwater results and some of the soil gas results that were within sort of the vicinity of the Miraflores neighborhood. no march march 25 was when we first uh when we had a community meeting we also had a meeting more recently um at mere forest senior apartments yeah in um within the last couple of months so yeah we've had several meetings but in terms of a larger community-wide meeting where we posted um You know, we've sent out invites to the thousands of addresses that are in the neighborhood and invited the community to join us. That was, you know, the last main public meeting that we held was at King Elementary. We held an auditorium at King Elementary in March of 2025. We do intend to hold another public meeting. We sort of tentatively had scheduled before we had soil gas results at the school. We had intended to hold another meeting in November of 2026, so November 10th is when we had tentatively set, but that may change given we're getting new information. There are several ways that you can stay informed about this. And we want you to be informed, right? Because that's part of our job. So we have a website called EnviroStore. And it's where we store the reports and the letters that we send based on this data, these data. So there are several environs for websites that we can point you toward. And I have some colleagues at the entrance with a table that can help point you towards those addresses, those URLs. With regards to residential testing, Yes, there has been some residential testing. There's been some residential testing on San Pablo Avenue and Nevin, so immediately around one of the dry cleaners that we investigate called Omo Fabricare Dry Cleaner. So there were two homes that were investigated in that area. And then in addition, there's been testing of the homes at the Miraflores Senior Apartments. So that's about a quarter of a mile to the southwest. And so in both of those cases, either in the case of around the dry cleaner, the detections would have been either really low, which was around the dry cleaner, or we don't believe there's any vapor intrusion going on. So, so far the results have not been concerning in indoor air for the places that have been tested.

City? Just a minute. The city was going to add something as well.

So I found the website and I'm going to slowly state it. You can go to Envirostor, E-N-V-I-R-O-S-T-O-R dot D-T-S-E dot C-A dot G-O-V And you can type in Miraflores Housing Development or the number is 70000, so 40104, and that will bring you to the site which provides a wealth of information about what has happened around Miraflores. Thank you.

Thank you. I do want to add one more thing. Claudio helped me point out for context. I mentioned the homes that were tested near the dry cleaner. The dry cleaner, the levels in the soil gas were in the tens of millions of micrograms per cubic meter. And the levels that we're talking about at the high school in the soil gas, at the most, are in the thousands. So we're talking about very different levels in what we would consider a source area, for example, at a dry cleaner, which would have used this solvent, for example, and released it, and areas where this solvent migrates like downhill or down gradient right so it is important to keep in mind that residential testing is usually is always informed by the results that we see in the ground and so it's a data informed decision to test the residential air and so that's um

My point here, what I was trying to point out is that a lot of times, even when we have much, much more contamination from the sea underground, a lot of times we don't find any level of concern at all. So at the school, while we have certainly contamination in the underground that doesn't mean that it got inside of the buildings but the school district out of a you know abundance of caution was to make sure and that's why they speed up the measurement and they're measuring tomorrow today So in order to make sure that their students and staff is protected, they act very, very carefully. Don't make assumptions. But again, in many other places where we see higher amount of DC underground, we do not have a problem with indoor.

Thank you. We're going to go to our guest over here to my left.

Good evening. My name is Michelle Jackson, and I grew up in this community. My church is here, St. Peter CME Church. My family's here. And the question that I have for this evening, I want to go back with those 20 years at Nevin and Cutting, because if the scientists know that it's been 20 years, obviously it's more than 20 years. and we know that it had to travel. So I'd like to know from Nevin to Cutting to over 20 years ago, Where did it travel and how did it travel? And my second question is, websites are nice and we support the city of Richmond who have supported us in so many ways, but we know in our community that's not the best way to communicate with our seniors, the people that have lived here the longest, our churches. We need to find another way to communicate because if this situation has happened over 20 years ago, everyone in this room need to commend our superintendent of schools for exposing it in this way, because I don't remember any meetings. And for it to be exposed like this where we can ask questions and rest our minds with these developments, we thank you, Superintendent Cotton, because you didn't have to do it like the other people didn't do it. This is a 20-year-old problem. that we're just now finding out about. And as we hear in every school board meeting, our students and staff safety comes first. So thank you for this meeting. And we need to know more because if something happened in this soil from Nevin to Cutting over 20 years ago, the city knew about it, The county knew about it and the state knew about it. But we're just now finding out about it. So I'd like to go back to the 20 years of the origin of how this chemical is moving and in what direction. Thank you.

I agree, it's a very good question. So where and how did it travel? So what we've known in 20 years has changed significantly. I absolutely do not disagree that 20 years is a long time and it's extremely frustrating to not have this problem solved in a community for 20 years. I share that frustration. We all share that frustration. We are working as hard as we can to find a source and to hold that source responsible for cleaning up this problem in the groundwater and in the soil gas. So I definitely share that frustration that 20 years is not lost on me at all. I will add that what we know again has changed significantly over 20 years. So number one, the data that we have today, the amount of information about the size of the problem is very different today than it was 20 years ago. In some ways, it's because the way of testing has changed. It's become better. The science has become better. In other ways, it's because our understanding of the chemicals have changed over time. I'm sure it's not lost on anyone here that chemicals that we sometimes think are safe, when they're invented and used, later we find they're not safe, right? So this chemical, once upon a time, was one of the most common chemicals used in dry cleaners. And so it was used for quite a long time in a lot of places. And so when we first detected, or when the city actually had collected the data in the early 2000s that detected it in the groundwater, we were aware of it. And it was public at the time. It was communicated at public meetings around the Miraflores site. But the understanding of the risks involved was very different then as it is today. So the science behind our understanding of the toxicity of the chemical has changed, our understanding of how the chemical moves through the environment, how easily it can, in certain circumstances, find its way into indoor air has changed. And so that's not an excuse. I'm not saying this as an excuse. I'm just providing context as to why these sites are so frustrating that they take 20 years to get to this point where more and more people know about it and can contribute to a solution. In this case, it wasn't one party collecting data either, right? And so these are very expensive tests to be done. The city has done a tremendous job working with us over the last several years to help try and find the source and sort of expand the investigations in the residential areas, just as the school district has done a tremendous job responding when we've, you know, approached them and recommended testing. So again, not to say that that is absolutely fair anger and frustration, but we share that as well, and there are in some cases reasons why some of this has taken so long. In terms of how we communicate, I hear you and I want, please approach me after this because I want to hear how best to communicate with the community. Every community is different. Not everyone is available at 6.30 p.m. on a weekday. in person or online right not everyone receives paper mail not everyone has an email or reviews their email i mean there are so many ways that we can stay in touch with the community and we in many ways rely on the community to help us understand so we can better communicate with you i mean it's also about languages spoken this is extremely diverse community and we know for sure that we need to translate materials to spanish for example but you know we we we We work with our colleagues in the city and in the school district to determine what language do materials grow and what community organizations, what places of worship should we contact, right? I mean, I'm aware there's a Methodist church across the street from the high school, right? So this is all very good to know and I appreciate you.

Anybody else on the panel? Okay. Our guest over here. Yep.

Good evening. My name is John Dixon, Jr. We are not here tonight to take the city of Richmond on. We are here to get information and all. And I thank the lady that was standing over there saying that we're not here to attack you guys. What I would like to know, I'm probably a senior citizen here at 88 years old. purchased a house on burnt place of a 40-person cutting in 1979. Therefore, I've seen in the little curse of that I live, 18 people have passed since I moved there. So I'm here to ask one question. What would I do or how would I find out whether it has affected my wife and I in my neighborhood? What would your recommendation be for me to find that out, whether that chemical has affected me one way or the other? Thank you.

Thank you. DTSC a little bit, but I know you're not the medical side from the doctor and...

You know, it's very hard to say how one individual person is affected. My suggestion would be to talk to your physician and see what they say because they They are the ones that know you best. I cannot give medical advice. But again, if you have concern about your personal health, talk to your physician. Because again, they are the ones that know most about your health.

Another component to this, I think, is that it's really difficult for us to support decision making, unfortunately, without data. And so if we don't have information about whether there's actually been indoor air impacts, it's very difficult for us to guess if there's been an exposure. But thank you, sir, for your question.

Okay, Ms. Sanders, an online question?

Thank you, Mr. Luongo. This is a question that we've also received, and there's a number of questions about this, and I do want to note, so far we have 35 questions that we've received online, but we will not be able to get to all of them this evening, but we are committed to building an updated FAQ based on those questions, distributing that to the community. This question is, do you think the problem will be solved before the start of the school year? And if not, will children miss classes or do you have a plan B? Superintendent Cotton and Mr. Carter, if you'd be able to speak to our work to develop some contingency plans and support continuity of learning.

As Jeff stated earlier, Jeff Carter stated earlier, we are looking at all sorts of options. Coming in today, had a really interesting conversation with council members of POTA about the possibilities, even in spaces similar to these. So we are looking at real estate all across this area in terms of an ideal setting. I do want to just lift up a couple of things. One, thank you, Ms. Jackson. It has been the school district that has really stepped up and I want to acknowledge our board members as well who took immediate action in July so that starting this testing process, I just want to just pause. It's not just me, it's all of us that are doing the very best that we can to support our students and keep our students and staff safe. In terms of what we can do to, there is a possible, a possibility that school on August 18th will open on our campus. There is a possibility of that based on the information that we collect. So we should be getting our results around the 12th. we'll be meeting with and talking to in consultation with DTSC and our partners to understand that data and then make an informed decision about what we want to do for our students and our staff. So we have put out the information around a possible temporary relocation, but that is because we don't have enough information and I'm not gonna wait until next Friday or next Thursday to start making a plan. We have to plan now. Given that, there's a possibility our indoor air testing comes out and it's great, fantastic, we are right on track. If we have concerns about those numbers that come back, we can make decisions about using parts of the campus. We can make decisions about finding other places and starting schools. School will start. We are also not walking away from this site. There are mitigation strategies. In the worst case, we may be out of our school the first quarter, maybe 60 days. Would it give us an opportunity for mitigation strategies to make sure that the air has been cleaned, that we are ready to bring students back to campus? And we've done another round of testing to ensure that. Those are some of the parameters that we're trying to make decisions around. But again, we can't make any decisions without data, without information. And that's where we're starting. So we will continue. We've been updating the community on a daily basis, and we will continue to do that until we have information. And so as our Assistant Superintendent of Communications, Liz Sanders, has shared, we've developed a website. There is ample information there. You can go to one place to find all of the information that we have shared. That is available to you right now. I appreciate that DTSC has shared their website information. The city is sharing their information as well. That's the point of tonight, is to make sure that we're sharing enough information so that we can all make informed decisions about what we're doing. Finally, I do want to just lift up the fact that we are in communication also with medical professionals. So Mr. Dixon, your question, in terms of what's happening on campus and impact on our students and our staff, we are working with medical professionals and hoping to put together a webinar next week to be able to continue to share information so that we are, again, making informed choices for all of us.

Passing it back to you, David.

Sounds good. Thank you. Our guest over here.

Good evening. My name is Tashi Johnson. Am I tall enough?

Just speak into the mic. It's hard to hear you.

My name is Tashi Johnson. I'm a district parent, a district graduate, and the lead organizing coordinator for Fierce Advocates here in Richmond. I also sit on our CBOC. I do want to thank our superintendent and our board trustees and the city of Richmond's leadership for acting swiftly to this huge problem, this big multi-generational problem. I'm very much gathering and understanding that this is just a preliminary informational because there truly isn't enough data to support the meat and potatoes of this problem. But when you do have the data to substantiate if there has been exposure, where will those mitigation costs come from? Bonds or an additional funding source like insurance? Also, are there other contaminants being tested, such as PCE, benzene, vinyl chloride, or breakdown products?

So I think we'll do the first part to you, Jeff. Yeah.

Yeah, so that first question of where is the cost coming from? bond dollars, the general fund, Fund 17, and then there are state programs for reimbursement as well. So we are looking into all sources of revenue to pay for the expenditures to mitigate these results. And then I'll pass it to Ian for the second part about the other testing.

The question about the other chemicals, right? Okay. So that's a really good question. There are other chemicals that were detected in the soil gas, but from our review with our expert toxicologists, we believe that PCE is the primary concern here.

Okay. I have a follow-up question to that. Will the raw lab results be provided to the public or just summaries?

Both. Both.

Okay, cool.

Okay, we'll do one more and then we'll come over. I want to make sure everybody in the room gets to ask stuff.

Will the public, especially teachers and staff, receive those raw lab findings and mappings of where the samples were collected? I understand they're small, but in an effort to satisfy interest of the public, will there be mapping and lab results provided to the students and families at Kennedy?

You're asking, will the students, the parents, the teachers, will they all receive the results?

The raw lab findings, yes.

Sorry, that last part?

The raw lab findings, yes.

Like the raw data.

The raw results will be made available on our public website. Anyone can download them. I think we'll have to work with the district to make sure that those links are distributed properly. But that information will become publicly available. I think right now, our goal is to... In order to be responsible public health professionals, we want to make sure that the data that we're providing to the public, even the raw data, is real, is usable, is suitable for the decisions that are being made. it would be irresponsible to provide that data, right? And so that's part of the balance we have to play while this is a very fast moving project. We do believe that the data that was collected so far in the soil gas are usable for the purposes that the school district made decisions on so far. But yes is the answer, we'll need help distributing it.

And just to make sure, Any report that we receive that is finalized and approved becomes a public document and is accessible on EnviroStore to anybody. This is not just for this site, for any of the sites we work on. Once the documents are finalized and approved of sufficient quality, we know that the content is accurate, and then it becomes a public document, is at EnviroStore, and anybody can look at it.

Thank you, and thank you for your questions. We're gonna come over here. I think we're just gonna have time, maybe one or two, we'll see, but we're coming to the end. We've got an end time of eight o'clock. We know there are a lot of questions, and so please make sure you fill out the QR code. We are gonna compile all those questions and then put together an FAQ. But to our guest over here.

Hello, my name is Twyla Tillis. I'm an alumni in 1988. I'm also an employee of Kennedy High School. So my concern is they just found out on July 31st. We just left there June 12th. Do we have any worries for our health? I mean, I have that question for all employees because this is making me nervous. I don't know if it gives cancer. I don't know the results to this.

Thank you.

What was found last Friday is that you have contamination underground. We have no evidence that shows that this contamination has gone indoor. That's why we are doing the testing of the indoor air now. Does that address your question? At the moment we do not have any data to say these things have got inside.

So we're not aware of whether you, you know, whether there's anything in the air that you would have breathed, right? We also can't talk retroactively because we can only collect data going forward. So we can't speak to, you know, you mentioned a day, you know, earlier in July, right?

June 12th was the last day of school, but what I'm asking is, you just found that on the 31st, you know, you did your test in July 15th. It was there June 12th, so... Do I have to have a concern about my health and other people's health that's around us? I mean, that was my question.

At this time, with the current information we have, we're not aware of any exposure at that time. But we don't have any indoor air data to make any decision about anything you would have been exposed to in indoor air. We're not aware of any exposures at this time. okay but in terms of whether it would have been in the soil uh yeah it's safe you know it's it's we're not certain but it's very likely that it was in the soil at the time right because it was detected like you said it was it was in july 17th something around that time that the clay the data was collected in the soil um but that doesn't mean that that it was in the indoor air or you know that you would have breathed it okay thank you sure

thank you mr guys i'm actually going to have we have a guest over here hasn't asked a question yet so i wanted to give this gentleman a chance you can just hold it hi everyone or you can use the one i'm holding

I'm on? Okay, that sounds good. Hi everyone, my name is Bendrick Foster. I'm the, how can I say, I'm the acting president of Park Plaza Neighborhood Council, where this first got started at, and also a community activist with New Life Movement for the Youth. So, my concern to hearing about Kennedy right now, like we have been having meetings at the meetings at our neighborhood councils about this situation might be occurring. My concern is now to float all the way down to a high school when we have protected it at Miraflores when we knew this was happening, to be floating all the way to the schools where the children are at. And I stayed in Park Plaza, been there since 19, well, my brother was there in 1972. I was there since 1975 in that same neighborhood. How do we know it's not protected in the homes? Because if it moved from Miraflores Project and it's moved all the way down to Kennedy High School, that is a problem. It's not just a problem, it's a concern. We can kind of lay it out like we want to, but I've been dealing with y'all for quite some time as well. And y'all have been up and up, but to see things didn't happen, and things got quiet, and to see that the high school now, where we're dealing with our children, is really a big concern for us as a big whole. As being the president of our neighborhood council, I represent our community into a whole nother path when it comes to our health, protection, and our concern about our youth and our community. So for me, my question to be, it's not even a question, it's more for me, it's like, if we can allow that to happen from being tested at the Mary Flores Project, when we said we was dealing, we heard a little bit that was going into the neighborhood a little bit, right? And that was our concern, right? Around 41st Street, 45th, right, 45th, around that area. But it didn't went all the way, jumped all across down Kennedy, across Cuddy to Kennedy High School. So doing that testing, what did we do to try to seize that problem from even happening to even jumping over? Because y'all are doing a lot of testing, a lot of testing, a lot of coming back and letting us know where it's going, but it seemed like it's spreading. And so how do we detect that situation that we know it ain't going to keep spreading through our whole community?

Probably DTSC kind of explaining the movement, I would think.

It's sort of, yeah, there are a couple different things. First of all, thank you for coming. I think you've come, we've met a few times, so I appreciate you coming again. So, this is a very difficult question, and it's extremely frustrating. The way that these investigations normally proceed is we first detect it somewhere and then we begin stepping out. Literally, right? We begin moving away from that place where you've detected it to try and find where it ends, right? And what's really frustrating here is that that can happen fast in some time. That detection process, that investigative process can happen. fast sometimes, it can happen slow sometimes in part because of who's doing the work and when the money is available and the testing is very difficult and expensive and so that's how an individual site usually expands its investigation into a community and that's what's happened here. I think there's another question though underlying your question which is are there ways that we can preventatively test beyond those investigative, that stepping out process, which feels, I think, a little bit like trying to catch something as it moves, right? And I think that's a, honestly that's a question that we as a society, we as a community have to address together. It's not something that I think DTSC alone can address because it would take a different approach to environmental monitoring in our communities. So I'm not saying it's not a bad idea, it's just not what we currently do.

So to me, it seems like it's a city problem, too, as well. It seems like it's a city problem. It seems like we need to all get on the same alignment, because this issue and to be carrying on. I mean, it was about a year or two years ago. To spread out more like this, then I think it needs to be distributed into the city. The city, if we talk about we need money to find out where this is at, because we're going to pollute our whole community. We ain't going to be no good to even be here. So we need to get coming in alignment, because this got too far. to be jumping like that, because if you was testing anything, and if you was testing what you had tested at, that means we should have stopped it right there. We should have got a hold of that right there and there. It shouldn't be going on and on for no years. And then now it's at the high school. So we don't know where it's at at this point. So I think this alignment for the whole city to get involved with, because it's dealing with people health. Because any toxin ain't healthy for nobody. It's like breathing Sherwin all your life. This is bad, okay? So we need to get into that so we can do something better for our community. I'm done with the job.

Thank you. Anybody else want to say anything? Okay. So we are getting to the end. I'm going to have our guest here. Just one last question. We won't be able to go into much depth right now, depending on the question. Oh, yes. Yes, this is Steve.

I don't have the solution to what Mr. Foster stated. We agree that this is an issue. We've been dealing with it at Mira Flores for years. The city, as far as I understand, I've not been the point of contact at the city, but my understanding is the city has been taking that we didn't necessarily have to take. We've been taking steps to do additional testing. The city has funded it. And so we are trying to figure out the same things that I think the community wants to figure out. Why? Because we care. So we will continue to work collectively with the neighborhoods, with DTSC, with the district, with our elected officials, with the neighborhood councils. We will continue to do that work. We truly do care. It is not an easy thing. to solve it's not an easy problem to solve but we are committed to trying to figure it out together so thank you thank you okay so our last question for the evening

Yeah, good evening, everyone. I'll be quick. I just have a couple questions, actually. One is around, I think it would have been great to hear a more concrete plan from the district or mitigation steps in terms of what could be Plan B in the scenario that, hey, the PCE levels are much more elevated than we thought or the indoor air data is not the best. I think it would have been great for families to hear, hey, in that scenario, you're going to Campus A or you're going to Campus B. And this is a plan for how we're going to support getting your students there. I think just given what's happened in this district the last year, I think allowing families a bit more concreteness is super necessary in this time. I also have another question around communications. I think, again, giving community an hour and a half when there's about 100 people in here, there's probably close to 200 people watching online, feels a little unfair, quite honestly, to have only 90 minutes to ask these questions. Again, just a matter of communication, I think, moving forward. having more time and space for community to really sit down and have these conversations with you all I think is, again, necessary. And one last question I have is, what are we assuming, if any, could be the potential fiscal impacts on the project if, you know, this contaminant, again, is elevated or the data comes back and it's not looking the best? How much more is this going to cost in terms of construction? What is that going to mean for the timeline of the construction of the school? And again, what is the plan for students, right? School starts in, I believe, six days. And again, I think families just want a bit more reassurance in terms of how they should move forward. You know, there's orientation day. There's so many things that happen at the beginning of the year, and I really wish that we could have been able to give families a little bit more given the urgency of everything that's happening. Thank you.

Thank you, and thank you to everybody tonight online and here in the room asking questions. Really appreciate it. Superintendent Cotton, do you want to, if you want to address any aspect of that question and then close us out afterwards, I'll turn it over to you at this point.

Thank you. I do want to lift up that on Friday we were informed of this problem. On Monday at 7 a.m., we were on a meeting where I met folks from DTSC, Monday at 7 in the morning. As quickly as we could, we gathered together to figure out what was going on. By today, Thursday, we have been able to pull together a community of folks to understand this problem much more deeply. We continue to work with our partners to put together a plan for our students. We're hoping to finalize and have a clear picture for our families, ideally tomorrow. to identify a site and a plan and to be able to share that with our community. We'll be sharing information on a daily basis. So as we learn more, I had never heard of a toxic vapor plume moving under the city before Friday. I've learned a lot about PCE. We have learned a lot about PCE. We have learned a lot about environmental issues, environmental justice, really. I appreciate that families are here tonight to learn. I appreciate that folks are able to ask questions of the agencies that have been monitoring this issue for a very long time. Now we need to figure out what we will do to support our students so that their education is not impacted by this environmental issue. We will be getting information out to share and to have a very clear picture of what August 18th will look like. I am excited to be able to let our students know that their scheduled August 11th orientation, we are working on and we'll be getting information out tomorrow about a student summit where we're able to talk to kids about what is happening on campus. We have asked these same partners to be present, to be able to answer your questions. We want to hear from you, your concerns, your questions, what you're hoping to see as we take steps going into the school year. So those things will be happening next week, continuing gathering information, We are looking at all real estate options, what's available for our students and what will be appropriate for our students. Again, in conversations, we're examining lots of different options. If you are aware of other options, please let us know. If you're aware of real estate that, you know what, this would make sense for our school. Have you considered this? Superintendent Cotton, I will be right on it. This is a community issue. And we are here to serve our kids. That's why we're all here tonight. With that, Mr. Luongo, thank you for your leadership. I appreciate this is his, yes. He has, Mr. Luongo is the new principal of Kennedy High School. He is longstanding, he's been an administrator, principal, and district administrator for over 12 years, and asked to be the principal here at Kennedy High School. I don't know if he knew what he was stepping into, what he was asking for, but he asked to be part of this community, had previously worked at Kennedy High School. And so it's folks like you, David, it's folks like all of us who are here. I see one of our teachers, our teachers are here. Our staff members are here. We care, we're here, we're part of this community, and I think we need to just acknowledge that and continue to work together to ensure that our kids have a great future. With that, I'll pass it. Oh, I'm sorry. Claudio, you wanted to say something.

Well, I just want to say something, and kudos to the school district and the school leadership. I've been working for the department for about just short of 20 years now, and I've never seen action taken so fast In less than a week, we went from getting the preliminary results to being here, to having the samples taken indoor to make sure that people are safe. Usually it takes weeks or months. So this is really, again, I cannot, maybe it has happened somewhere else, but I cannot remember anywhere where the people were acting so fast to get people informed and take action to see if there is a problem.

Thank you, everybody. Good night. We really appreciate y'all. Good night. As you're making your way out, you'll notice there's a tiny URL.