WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — Any Vermont school districts planning to test for polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCB, contamination this year will have to do without financial support from the state.

Patricia Coppolino, senior environmental program manager with the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, said this week that despite having scheduled schools for testing, the state won’t have any money to pay for it, at least for the time being.

Several Upper Valley schools were among those scheduled, and administrators for some of those schools had said this month they were counting on state support.

“If (schools) want to move forward with the sampling, they can conduct it on their own,” Coppolino said in an interview on Tuesday.

There remains a possibility that the state would reimburse school districts for testing expenses at some point in the future.

“That’s our plan,” Coppolino said.

When the state mandated PCB testing in 2021, it said air testing was expected to cost about $20,000 per school.

Mountain Views Supervisory Union has two schools on the state’s schedule for this summer: Woodstock Elementary School and Woodstock Middle and Senior High School.

“We are just learning of this decision by the (state),” Superintendent Sherry Sousa wrote in an email this week.

She said she planned to reach out to state officials to learn more.

“I will then present that information to the MVSU Board for their consideration and next steps,” she said.

White River Valley Supervisory Union has three schools on the state testing schedule for this year in Stockbridge, Tunbridge and Chelsea.

WRVSU Superintendent Jamie Kinnarney declined this week to comment on whether testing would still occur.

In the meantime, the state will prioritize financial support for six school districts, including Hartford, that have already tested and discovered PCB contamination levels that are well above state-established safety levels.

The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation has requested $9.5 million from the Legislature to assist those six schools. Lawmakers are still negotiating the budget.

Even that funding — if approved — is on a “first-come, first-served” basis and won’t cover all costs, Coppolino said.

Hartford school officials were scheduled to meet with state officials this week to discuss a plan of action to address highly elevated PCB levels at Hartford High School and Hartford Career and Technical Center. The contamination is so bad, Hartford officials have been considering demolishing and rebuilding portions of the schools.

PCBs were used in building materials from the 1930s through the 1970s until they were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1979.

Exposure to PCBs can lead to health issues with the nervous, immune, reproductive and endocrine systems, according to a fact sheet from the Vermont Department of Health. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified PCBs as carcinogens.

In 2021, the Vermont Legislature passed Act 74, which mandated school districts test the air quality of educational buildings for PCB contamination. The original deadline to complete the testing was this year, but that date has since been pushed to 2027.

The state testing schedule was last updated on April 3.

Despite not having money to reimburse local school districts, state officials decided to leave the schedule in place, Coppolino said.

“I think it’s uncertain when funding is going to be provided for the next phase of schools and the work that needs to happen,” she said.

According to the Department of Environmental Conservation website, testing scheduled for 2025 and beyond, “will occur in scheduled order as funding becomes available. .... The Agency will work to reimburse school funded work when additional funding becomes available.”

The Vermont Superintendents Association is adamant that the state should pay for PCB testing and that the funding allocated so far has been insufficient to pay for testing and resulting remediation work.

“It is up to the Agency of Natural Resources, not VSA, to clearly communicate with superintendents that testing has been suspended, what the implications for that are, and next steps,” Chelsea Myers, executive director of the Montpelier-based nonprofit organization, wrote in a Wednesday email. “We continue to hold the position that this state-mandated initiative should be paid for by the state, not local school districts.”

Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.