Henrico School Board proposes $26.5M funding request to address aging buildings, HVAC concerns

The Henrico School Board is seeking to increase its annual school maintenance funding by several million from last year to help tackle a list of $56-million worth of HVAC projects.

Each year, the Henrico Board of Supervisors provides funding for the school board’s Capital Improvement Plan, which designates funds for building maintenance at Henrico Schools facilities. Last year, the school board received $19 million of the $21 million it requested to fund the CIP – a big boost from years before – and the board has proposed an even bigger ask this year of $26.5 million.

A significant amount of the CIP funding would be used to address a list of 70 prioritized HVAC projects totaling $56 million at different Henrico schools. For school board members, HVAC concerns are top of mind, especially with several school closures due to broken AC units this fall and last school year.

“I want to ensure that all schools have adequate, working HVAC, and so whatever you need – if it’s $10 million, if it’s more than $10 million – we want to know, we want you to ask for it,” school board vice-chair Marcie Shea (Tuckahoe District) said to HCPS leaders at an Oct. 24 meeting. “We want to make that happen for our students and our staff.”

The $10 million request for mechanical projects would help HCPS complete both repairs on broken AC units and preventative maintenance to prevent future breakage, HCPS Chief of Operations Lenny Pritchard said. While the $7 million received last year was a “much appreciated increase” from previous years, Pritchard said, it “barely scratches the surface” of the school system’s HVAC needs.

“In essence, our plan aims to replace mechanical items before they fail,” he said. “Some of it is taking some of those funds and being proactive and looking at the list of what we can do and take care of, some of it is going back and being reactive and fixing things as they do break down.”

About three-quarters of HCPS’ school buildings are more than 30 years old, and 60% are more than 50 years old. In buildings older than 50 years, HVAC systems often experience more challenges, Pritchard said,

“Schools generally that old, to meet capacity in the past they’ve had add-ons, additions built onto the school, so that has created some HVAC issues,” he said. “When you try to tie in five or six different systems all into one, it does become very problematic at some times. That is probably the biggest issue that we have.”

HCPS’ facilities team still has a number of vacancies, with HVAC technicians now much harder to find, Pritchard said. The division also has to outsource most of its mechanical work to outside contractors, which means that HVAC projects and funding must be spread out over time.

“This is work we cannot do in HCPS, we have to rely on outside vendors. And asking for a lot of money upfront, it probably wouldn’t matter because the vendors just don’t have the people to do that amount of work,” Pritchard said.

Roofing is another top concern; more than 50% of HCPS’ roofs will soon have to be replaced due to age, which is estimated to cost between $127 million and $170 million. The division’s playgrounds also have to be replaced every 11-12 years to meet safety standards, with replacement costs totaling $300,000 for each school.

These high costs, which have risen in the past several years, should be taken into account before the school board finalizes its CIP funding request on Dec. 12, board member Madison Irving (Three Chopt District) said.

“When I see constant expenditures, I always think well, that then covers less over the previous years,” Irving said. “So I think that any future arrangement should include an adjustment because if things become more expensive, we have to equate that to what it would have cost over time.”

The increasing costs of replacing old structures have caused progress on maintenance projects to slow in some areas, Pritchard said, but HCPS has still made some headway. The division has replaced almost half of its school bus fleet and has tackled a total of 425 school maintenance projects using meals tax funds.

HCPS also has set a long-range plan to renovate or rebuild a number of school buildings during the next decade, starting with eight school projects expected to be completed by 2030 using funds from Henrico's 2022 bond referendum.

An additional 17 schools are set to be renovated or rebuilt starting in 2029, but HCPS has not identified a funding source and has not determined which buildings will be renovated and which will be rebuilt.

The first five schools on the long-range planning list – Ruby F. Carver Elementary, Elizabeth Holladay Elementary, Three Chopt Elementary, Dumbarton Elementary, and Hermitage High – all were recommended to be renovated instead of rebuilt, by a study from an outside consultant.

But Brookland District representative Kristi Kinsella said that Hermitage should be a higher priority for the division, and a rebuild rather than a renovation, due to all of the maintenance needs the aging building faces. 

“I would like to request that Hermitage be moved on this list as priority rebuild – not renovation – priority rebuild number one in year one or earlier should any additional funding become available,” Kinsella said. “Not to displace any of our other schools or priorities, but this is a high school, everything else in year one is an elementary school.”

Board chair Alicia Atkins (Varina District) and Fairfield District representative Ryan Young also requested that some of the older buildings in their districts be added to the list or made a higher priority.

However, factors other than just building age have to be considered when choosing which buildings to prioritize, HCPS Superintendent Amy Cashwell said.

“We certainly could say we want to begin replacing buildings by age and stack them up by the year they were built, but we know that it’s a little bit more complicated than that,” she said. “It’s not just the age but the condition of the facility and the conduciveness for teaching and learning in current environments.”

Cashwell also noted that moving one school higher on the priority list would bump another school to a lower position, but said that HCPS could look into reanalyzing Hermitage and the other schools set for a renovation.

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s Report for America Corps member and education reporter. Her position is dependent upon reader support; make a tax-deductible contribution to the Citizen through RFA here.