FLORISSANT — Families of Jana Elementary students are scrambling to make arrangements for the school’s shutdown next week after testing showed radioactive contamination on campus.
About 375 kindergarten through fifth grade students will start virtual instruction on Monday. Students in Jana’s two preschool classrooms will transfer to the district’s Barrington Elementary, 2.6 miles away.
New school assignments for Jana students and staff will be made the week of Nov. 14, according to a message posted Wednesday by the Hazelwood School District, which includes 19 other elementary schools. Students will start attending their new schools after Thanksgiving break.
Students and staff felt blindsided by the school board’s decision to close Jana and prefer to be moved to an alternative building while the school gets cleaned up, said PTA president Ashley Bernaugh.
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“All of the families that have made Jana their home, they are quite the team. They cheer each other on, they champion each other. We are so unwilling to let that community just go,” Bernaugh said.
Hazelwood leaders did not respond to questions Wednesday about the decision to reassign the students.
“Please know that Hazelwood School District will work hand-in-hand with you to provide the support that is needed as we transition through these very difficult times,” .
Dust and dirt samples taken Aug. 15 from Jana Elementary’s library, kitchen, HVAC system, classrooms, fields and playgrounds were found “far in excess of the natural background” of radioactive isotope lead-210, polonium, radium and other toxins, according to a Boston Chemical Data Corp. report generated through an ongoing lawsuit and publicized last week.
The school, which opened in 1970 at 405 Jana Drive, sits in the flood plain of Coldwater Creek. The creek was contaminated with radioactive waste starting in the 1940s from the storage of residue from atomic weapons production.
The Army Corps of Engineers, which is charged with cleanup of the creek, has not corroborated the findings of the independent report on contamination at the school.
About half of the students at Jana qualify for free or reduced school lunch, an indicator of poverty. The school district previously switched to online classes for nearly a year after the pandemic started in spring 2020.
Following a national trend, students at Jana fared significantly worse on standardized tests during virtual learning. In the spring of 2019, nearly half of third graders at Jana tested proficient in English and 40% in math. Two years later, 20% of the school’s fifth graders tested proficient in English and fewer than 3% in math.
Bernaugh, the PTA president, said the repeated disruptions will damage Jana students’ relationships with friends and teachers along with their academics.
“This is another case where big people made big mistakes and now little people have to suffer for it,” Bernaugh said. “We should not have to choose between quality, loving education for our kids and a safe place to do it.”
Given a possibility that students may have been exposed to radioactive waste, parents and other family members also are calling on the district to provide medical testing or guidance.
During the packed board meeting Tuesday night, Kimberly Anderson said that she is raising three grandchildren who attend the school. She worried about the health damage that might already have occurred.
“This can cause long-term effects with children,” Anderson said, adding the district should provide a medical expert who can offer “insight as to what I need to be looking for and what I need to have tested for my children.”
To start with, Anderson said she plans to have the blood of her grandchildren tested.
Alumni of the school have been connecting online and said they learned of the contamination through the media. Asaki Carr of Florissant said her daughter attended preschool at Jana last year.
“I was devastated and shocked, and mostly angry,” Carr said. “No one was ever notified and now I can only be reactive.”
Bernaugh lives nearby and has a son who attends. She called the findings of the study “terrifying.” She’s done enough research to know any health ramifications including a potential increased risk of cancer may be years or decades away, not immediate.
“But lab testing would be prudent especially because of the levels of radioactivity and lead found,” Bernaugh said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: Construction on Jana Elementary was completed in 1970. An addition was completed in 1972. An earlier version of this story had the wrong opening year.
At a school board meeting Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022, a board representative read a statement from the board and school leaders outlining plans to send Jana Elementary School students to virtual classes until they, and staff, are redistricted to other buildings.
