As promised, the Jersey City Board of Education is now in the final stages of getting the lead out of the drinking water at its schools.Following testing this summer of water samples from each of six sites, fountains have been turned on at six more buildings.They are: Mahatma K. Gandhi Elementary School 23, 143 Romaine Ave.; School 23 Annex Elementary School, 1000 West Side Ave.; Renaissance Institute, 128 Duncan Ave.; Liberty High School, 299 Sip Ave.; Elementary School 24, 220 Virginia Ave.; and A. Harry Moore School, 2078 Kennedy Boulevard.Jim Nelson, an education team leader with the advocacy group Jersey City Together, said the testing (by Environmental Testing Services, of North Chesterfield, Va.) showed only minute traces of lead well below safety standards set by the state Department of Education and Department of Environmental Protection.Testing results from July may be viewed by visiting the Board of Education’s website – jcboe.org – and clicking on District, and then School Lead Reports for 2024.One exception, Nelson noted, is Renaissance Institute for which the data “was not uploaded yet.”Also, websites for individual schools have yet to be updated to reflect the most recent lead readings, Nelson said.Six other school buildings are in varying stages of preparation for fountain activation, Nelson said.    Anthony J. Infante School 31, 3055 Kennedy Boulevard; Martin Luther King Jr. School 11, 886 Bergen Ave.; and Danforth Early Childhood Center, 160 Danforth Ave., may be tested by next month.Still awaiting testing dates are: Alexander D. Sullivan Elementary School 30, 171 Seaview Ave.; Glenn Cunningham Early Childhood Center, 346 Claremont Ave.; and Charles T. Epps Lincoln High Freshman Academy, 60 Cresent Ave.Guarini Plumbing, of Jersey City, was contracted to handle all 12 schools listed for the 2024-2025 phase for the supply and installation of single and bi-level water fountains at a cost of about $3.1 million.A Harry Moore SchoolA Harry Moore SchoolA Harry Moore SchoolLiberty High SchoolPS 23 AnnexPS 24Renaissance InstituteNeither Dr. Maya Angelou Elementary School 20, 239 Ocean Ave., nor Patricia Noonan Elementary School 26, 164 Laidlaw Ave., is slated for plumbing upgrades because they are equipped with updated drinking facilities deemed to be safe.Infinity Institute (the old St. Paul’s School), 193 Old Bergen Road, is excluded from the city-wide project because the property is leased from the Archdiocese of Newark. Fountains there were de-activated to avoid possible contamination and staff brought in 5-gallon water cooler jugs to fill up bottles brought by students.  Under a revised state DOE requirement, school districts are obliged to test all school fountains for lead and continue that testing every three years. “We’re curious as to whether the DOE will henceforth be requiring a broader range of testing for a range of potential contaminants, aside from lead,” Nelson said.Citing statistics logged by the school board, Nelson said that during the first phase of Jersey City school testing conducted between 2019 and 2022, drinking water from 15 schools enrolling 13,000 students was sampled and checked; between 2022 and 2023, water at 17 schools accommodating 10,000 students were tested and so far, this year, 12 schools with between 4,000 and 5,000 students were screened.In some schools, he said, plumbers installed more fountains than the school originally held where school administrators felt they were needed, such as Dickinson High School where the number of samples taken were tripled.Meanwhile, Jersey City Together anticipates joining with board administrators in November to mark what, he hopes, will be the completion of the project.For more details, visit Jersey City Together’s website School Drinking Water Project page, available through [email protected] post Jersey City Schools Nearing Completion of Lead-Free Water Fountain Project appeared first on Jersey City Times.