Overview
- The West Contra Costa Unified School District closed John F. Kennedy High after soil testing during campus modernization detected tetrachloroethylene, also called PCE, beneath the site.
- The California Department of Toxic Substances Control is carrying out fast indoor-air sampling and working with district and city officials to speed results and explain next steps at a planned community town hall.
- Students and athletes have faced canceled practices and uncertainty about fall classes as the district weighs temporary relocation of programs while tests and decisions continue.
- PCE is a solvent long used in dry cleaning that can move through soil and groundwater and has been linked by health agencies to nervous-system effects and higher long-term cancer risk, and investigators say the contamination may connect to nearby historic dry-cleaning sites.
- Test results will determine whether the campus can reopen, what remediation is needed, and whether the district must start the school year at an alternate site, and the district has declined on-camera interviews while directing questions to its public advisories.