Amid record heat, some Henrico schools still without AC

Several Henrico Schools staff and parents expressed outrage that air conditioning units at a reported 10 schools were not working when students returned to school after Labor Day on Sept. 5.

Henrico Schools officials reported that 23 schools were experiencing AC outages on Aug. 17, just a few days before school started on Aug. 21, although parents and staff reported an additional eight schools that were also without AC. The HCPS facilities team made 34 repairs by Aug. 25, according to officials.

Henrico Schools Superintendent Dr. Amy Cashwell and Henrico School Board members said at an Aug. 24 school board meeting that the HCPS facilities team was able to address the outages and provide spot coolers and fans to classrooms that were not able to be fixed.

However, several classrooms in Gayton Elementary, Dumbarton Elementary, and Trevvett Elementary are still without AC, according to parents and staff. Parents and teachers on social media also said that Harvie Elementary, Skipwith Elementary, Fair Oaks Elementary, Moody Middle, Hermitage High, and Douglas S. Freeman High had AC outages on Sept. 5.

Henrico Schools spokesperson Eileen Cox, however, said Sept. 6 that officially only two schools were impacted by AC outages: Gayton Elementary and Glen Lea Elementary.

Gayton Elementary canceled all classes Wednesday and Thursday due to the AC issues. NBC12 News reported that Gayton parents had said that temperatures in classrooms had reached 88‎°F.

A Gayton parent, who asked to remain anonymous, said they were notified at 1 p.m. on Sept. 5 by the school principal about the AC issues, which impacted their child’s classroom.

“I’m extremely upset. I wasn’t notified until almost 1 p.m. today,” they said. “And I’m just livid because my child has a lot of health issues and it’s 95 degrees out today!”

Students were kept in school that day, but classes were canceled the next morning due to extreme temperatures, with a reported heat index of up to 105‎°F Wednesday. The anonymous parent said that their child was clearly struggling with the heat when they came home Tuesday.

“As soon as they got off the bus, they were like, ‘pool.’ So I knew they were hot,” they said. “I mean my frustration is, my child can’t always express, ‘I’m hot.’ I’m just super livid with the county right now.”

Dumbarton Elementary is also experiencing similar issues. HCPS parent Carrie Rose, who was the former vice president of Dumbarton’s parent-teacher association, said that temperatures were upwards of 78‎°F in several classrooms since AC issues were reported Aug. 18.

“Unfortunately, conditions have not changed much – many classrooms are still without functioning AC,” she said. “Currently one of the classrooms is 78 degrees with 80% humidity – and this is with a ‘big chiller’ that has been placed in the room. As you can imagine, the students are having difficulty focusing due to the extreme temperatures in these classrooms.”

While principals at individual schools have contacted parents and staff, Henrico Schools has not put out an official statement notifying the community about these issues. Cox said that the HCPS facilities team is working to address all the issues immediately and that temperatures in school buildings are able to be mitigated with spot coolers and fans.

“It is incorrect to report that Henrico Schools is not responding to HVAC issues as quickly as possible or considering the health and safety of our students,” she said. “Spot chillers are large units that are delivered to schools when repairs cannot be easily made. Fans are available to schools upon request by the school administrator or based upon the recommendation of the facilities team.”

The anonymous Gayton parent said another parent ended up bringing fans to the classroom. Their child’s teacher had fans on high, blinds closed, cool wipes, and water bottles, but there seemed to be a lack of coordination from the school, according to the anonymous parent.

Another parent from Trevvett Elementary, who asked to remain anonymous, said the AC was not working in several classrooms since Aug. 14 and expressed frustration that classes were not canceled. They said their child’s classroom has not had AC since the first day of school and was just recently moved to a classroom with AC after spending 11 days with no AC.

“Gayton Elementary closed for this very reason, but my child’s school has not closed and I feel there are equity/equality issues in regards to learning conditions and environments,” they said. “My child comes home every day exhausted and sweaty because they are learning in an unsafe environment, but also is so worried that they will be behind if they miss a day.”

An employee from Skipwith Elementary, who asked to remain anonymous, said that several classrooms did not have AC since the first day of school, but the issues were fixed Sept. 6.

Parents have also expressed frustration about school communication being inconsistent, leaving parents in the dark about what is going on in their students’ classrooms.

The anonymous Gayton parent said they were only contacted by their child’s teacher about the AC issues after school ended on Tuesday, but the teacher did send parents a picture earlier about something unrelated on the classroom communication app, leaving the parent confused.

"They’re using the communication tool to communicate with parents, but not about the air conditioning being out," they said.

The Gayton parent said that they were notified by their child’s bus driver at 7:28 a.m. on Wednesday, about 20 minutes after their child had gotten on the bus, that school buses were ordered to not pick up anymore students and to take students currently on the bus back to their bus stops. They also received a message from the principal at 7:35 a.m., 15 minutes before the start of school, that classes were canceled that day.

Not only does this present safety risks for students whose parents may have already left for work, the parent said, but school staff were uninformed and confused about whether the school would be open that day.

“I called the school at 7:29 and the school had no idea what was going on,” they said. “They’re like, ‘Do what?’ They had no idea if school was happening today, they just said the principal was on the phone with the higher ups trying to figure it out.”

While Cox said that the majority of AC outages were reported the week before school started Aug. 21, parents and staff said that AC issues have impacted schools for much longer, with staff reporting outages weeks or even months before school started.

“There were similar issues last year as well. One of the teachers actually passed out from heat exhaustion last year,” Rose said about Dumbarton Elementary. “There is no indication as to when the issue will be resolved, only that they are ‘working on it’ – which has been the same response since last year.”

Concerned about the health of students and staff in the heat, parents and staff urged Henrico Schools to make AC repairs more of a priority.

“I just want my coworkers and students to all get AC,” the anonymous Skipwith employee said.