Henrico Schools seeks big boost in funding for AC and roofing repairs

The Henrico School Board last week formally requested an additional $9 million in funding from the Henrico Board of Supervisors – money that it would use to replace aging air conditioning units and roofs at public schools.

At a Dec. 14 meeting, the school board passed the division’s capital improvement plan for fiscal year 2024-2025, which requests that the board of supervisors allocate $21 million to Henrico Schools for building maintenance – a $9 million increase from what was allocated in the current fiscal year.

The board of supervisors funds the school district’s CIP each year and has provided HCPS with $1.5 million for mechanical repairs and $1.5 million for roof maintenance every year since 2000. But this year, HCPS will need much more funding to keep up with aging buildings and higher equipment costs, HCPS officials said.

“To put it simply, additional funding is needed to keep up with our mechanical breakdowns, aging systems, and yearly inflation,” HCPS Chief of Operations Lenny Pritchard said. “HCPS has received the same $1.5 million CIP mechanical funds since 2000. This is not enough to reduce our mechanical costs.”

The coming year’s CIP will request $8 million for mechanical and $4 million for roofing. Repairing heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems has cost the division $28 million over the past four years, Pritchard said, with only $6 million coming from the annual CIP. The rest of the $22 million was taken from COVID relief grants and meals tax funding.

The school board also requested that the board of supervisors provide the same funding amounts it did in the current fiscal year for playground repairs ($1 million), vehicle replacements ($6 million), and technology upgrades ($2 million). These amounts are the result of increases the board of supervisors has made in the past few years.

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HCPS officials said that increasing funds for HVAC repairs would help prevent the many AC breakdowns that occurred in more than 20 schools at the beginning of this school year. The HCPS facilities team responded to 34 reports of broken AC units in August, with some employees saying that the AC had been broken in their schools for several weeks.

“We all know the challenges that we experienced,” said outgoing Fairfield District school board member Roscoe Cooper, III, who will join the board of supervisors Jan. 1. “We don’t have enough money to keep up with the need for replacement and fixing.”

But school board chair and Brookland District member Kristi Kinsella said she was concerned that even $8 million would not be enough for a year’s worth of AC repairs. Kinsella pointed out that an HVAC repair contract for just one school – Douglas S. Freeman High – cost $4.5 million in October.

“I mean to cover one school is $4.5 million,” she said. “Then I look at the amount of $8 million per year, that really doesn’t buy much for a high school HVAC unit. Are we feeling pretty good about that?”

HCPS Superintendent Amy Cashwell said she was confident that the amount would cover routine maintenance, and that funding from other sources could be pulled in the case of “unexpected issues.”

Pritchard also noted that HVAC systems were put through more strain in the past three years because they were modified with stronger filters and had to be constantly flushed during the COVID pandemic.

“We have seen the strain some of that has taken on our aged systems and I think that’s part of why we’re in the situation that we’re in.,” he said. “We’re working our way out of this.”

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The board also requested $1 million in funding to replace playground equipment that was more than 11-12 years old. In the past, parent-teacher associations often were responsible for building and maintaining the playgrounds at their school, but Cashwell said that HCPS has taken on the responsibility to provide a baseline amount to all schools across the county to ensure equity.

“We’re committed. That’s a part of the school and the school programming, and so that’s part of our responsibility and upkeep,” Cashwell said.

Playground costs also have increased, becoming a number that PTAs cannot afford anymore, outgoing Three Chopt District member Micky Ogburn said. While playground sets cost about $40,000 in the mid-1990s, they now cost around $150,000 – totaling $300,000 for each elementary school that has one set for younger students and another for older students.

“I am so glad this has become a priority and that we’re not putting this on the backs of PTAs,” Ogburn said.

With the funding, HCPS will be able to rebuild playgrounds at three schools each year and replace the division’s 32 oldest playground sets in the next 5 or 6 years, Cashwell said.

HCPS also will use the $6 million in vehicle repair funding to replace its aging bus fleet, Pritchard said. The division has purchased 147 full passenger buses and 76 exceptional education lift buses, all with climate control, since the last CIP and now has a fleet totaling 547 buses.

“These funds have allowed us to decrease the bus fleet’s age, thus reducing fuel costs and repair costs,” Pritchard said. “It has also improved driver workspace, as all new buses are equipped with climate control and technology upgrades.”

The funding will primarily be used to replace older vehicles, but if money is left over, HCPS will purchase additional buses, Pritchard said. Henrico Schools has purchased roughly 38 to 40 new buses each year, although many schools still rely upon buses that have to make second rounds due to limited fleets. Each bus costs $155,000.

HCPS will also use the funding to replace school vehicles besides regular buses, such as the vehicles used for Career and Technical Education programs and for drivers education classes.

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Although the school board only voted on these CIP funds, board members did discuss plans for the renovation and construction projects outlined by the 2022 bond referendum, which designates five schools to be rebuilt or renovated and two new schools to be constructed by 2029.

Despite her concerns that more western Henrico schools needed to be prioritized to alleviate overcrowding in the area, Ogburn said that she would stand behind the building timeline passed by voters in the 2022 referendum.

“I know that the [HCPS] team has taken a deep dive and a look into the concerns I brought forward in November about overcrowding in Three Chopt, and I appreciate that responsiveness,” she said. “But we do have a bond referendum process. We’ve passed it, we’re going to follow it, we’re going to go through with it.”

The school board also outlined 17 other schools that were slated to be rebuilt during the next 10 years. However, Cashwell said that these long-term projects were not set in stone and schools could be added to the list.

Current capital projects the school division is working to finish include expansions of the Advanced Career Education centers at Highland Springs High and Hermitage (which will add 900 additional seats to the Henrico CTE program), construction of a new campus for the Academy at Virginia Randolph, and construction of new auditoriums for Tuckahoe Middle, Brookland Middle, and Fairfield Middle. The new ACE centers are set to open for students this January.

After the CIP is reviewed by the board of supervisors, it will be sent back to the school board for its final approval.

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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.