Pulaski High School in Milwaukee had to close its kitchen earlier this week after a dead mouse and rodent droppings were found during a Milwaukee Health Department inspection.

On May 13, a health department inspector found a dead mouse on a sticky trap behind a cooler unit and rodent droppings in the back receiving room and main kitchen.

The droppings were discovered beneath shelving units in the dry storage enclosure, near the cast iron radiator unit next to the serving line, on the floor of the chemical closet in the employee break room and behind the cooler unit near the warewashing station.

The inspection also revealed potential entry points for pests, according to the inspection report, including along weather stripping behind the back receiving garage door, a hole on the bottom right corner of the exit door in the receiving room, two holes on the west wall of the dry storage enclosure behind the plumbing line and the closet in the employee break room.

The school kitchen is not a central kitchen where meals are packaged and distributed to other schools. However, the school does prepare meals for its students.

MPS has until May 20 to fix the issues before it is re-inspected. If the issues aren’t resolved by the time of the re-inspection, the health department could temporarily suspend food service, said health department spokesperson Caroline Reinwald.

The department ordered the school to take corrective actions, including covering holes that might be entry points for rodents, routinely inspecting facilities for insects and rodents; cleaning and sanitizing the kitchen floor. The school was also ordered to monitor and provide effective pest control, and to remove all dead pests frequently.

Reinwald said the inspection of the school’s kitchen was coordinated with the Department of Neighborhood Services after receiving a tip about possible pest activity.

MPS has provided grab-and-go breakfast kits, and lunches are being prepared off-site and delivered to Pulaski for now.

Milwaukee Public Schools said it was notified of the issue May 14 and acted immediately to address it. The district said it worked closely with the Health Department and had licensed personnel perform eradication measures. The Health Department found no evidence of food contamination, and the school did not need to close, the district said in an emailed statement to a reporter.

“This facility at Pulaski High School is one of the district’s smallest food preparation sites. All food preparation areas are washed and sanitized daily and all meals prepared at this location are heat-sealed and stored in a refrigerator or freezer. The district uses quality control measures, ensuring that if any food were ever identified as being compromised it would be destroyed,” the district said in its statement.

Contact Alec Johnson at (262) 875-9469 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @AlecJohnson12.