Cabarrus County Schools reports lead testing in drinking and cooking outlets; three schools had sites above state threshold

Cabarrus County Schools is participating in North Carolina’s Clean Classrooms for Carolina Kids water-testing program and has sampled more than 600 drinking or cooking water outlets across the district, district officials said during the school board’s Jan. 16 work session.

The district’s tests have returned mostly clean results, but three schools had individual sample sites above the state’s allowable level. “We have sampled over 600 individual sites at school,” director-level staff said, and “we have had 3 schools with points that came back above [the] state allowable level.” Those schools were identified in the meeting as Coltrane Webb, Wellington Hills Elementary School and Odell Elementary School.

Why it matters: The statewide program, funded with federal American Rescue Plan Act–related appropriations administered by the state, requires all school systems to sample water outlets students might drink from or use for food preparation. When a sample returned at or above the state threshold—reported in the meeting as “10 parts per 1,000,000,000 or greater”—the district said it takes the fixture out of service and follows mitigation steps before allowing reuse.

The district described standard mitigation steps for positive samples. “When we identify this, first of all, what we do is we take that particular piece of equipment out of operation,” a district administrator said. For affected kitchen steamers, the district said it installs a certified water-filtration system and then draws follow-up samples; for faucets, the remedy may be faucet replacement and retesting.

The district said it is notifying stakeholders by letter about specific sites where samples returned above the allowable level and providing a contact for questions. “There’s a letter that we send home to the stakeholders informing them as to what took place, and then it gives them a point of contact should they have any questions,” the district stated.

District officials said the state program is mandatory and funded through November 30, 2026, and that participation began with enrollments last fall. The district said teams from facilities and risk management led sampling: “Our director of facilities maintenance, Mr. Chuck Taylor, in conjunction with our director of risk management, Mr. Jeffrey Mitchell, have really been points on this.”

What’s next: The district said it is more than halfway through sampling and will continue to update the board and the public as additional results return.

Ending: The board did not take a board-level vote on the testing program at the meeting; staff described the district’s mitigation and parent-notification process and said those procedures have already begun.