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Brilliant Minds Academy lead clean up details

Posted at 6:16 PM, May 16, 2018
and last updated 2018-05-16 21:16:46-04

Following last week's temporary closure of the Brilliant Minds Academy Preschool, Kern County Public Health officials told 23ABC that the California Department of Social Services was responsible for cleaning up the lead, but Social Services said they're not the responsible party.

Wednesday, preschool academy tenants met with an insurance adjuster to get a new paint job. Lead contaminants were found in the exterior and interior paint by Kern County Public Health officials back in April

"The department of Public Health Environmental Health Division, we do not perform clean-up efforts," Kern County Public Health Public Information Officer Michelle Corson said.

Corson said even though lead exposure poses an extreme safety hazard to children, her department is not responsible for helping remediate the lead from the preschool facility, "The responsible party to our knowledge would be those that oversee the licensing of the facility, which is the California Department of Social Services."

However, officials at the California Department of Social Services told 23ABC that their department is not responsible and that the Brilliant Minds Academy business owners are the ones who need to make the effort to clean up, not them.

Lead was also found in the soil near the child play area.

After all the lead is gone Public Health will do its part by revisiting the facility for a follow up evaluation, “We can go back in and we can test that there is no lead present at the Brilliant Minds Academy," Corson said.

After that if Public Health finds no lead at the facility during its re-evaluation process, the state said those findings will have to be resubmitted to the state so that owners of the Brilliant Minds Academy can apply for re-licensing.

At this time the business owners of Brilliant Minds Academy have declined to comment on their clean-up efforts. The insurance adjuster did tell 23ABC that the property owner has been notified as well. It's unclear when the preschool will re-open.