{"id":13934,"date":"2024-10-18T17:49:32","date_gmt":"2024-10-18T17:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=13934"},"modified":"2024-10-18T17:57:38","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T17:57:38","slug":"can-you-please-help-us-broken-hvac-systems-continue-plaguing-local-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/10\/18\/can-you-please-help-us-broken-hvac-systems-continue-plaguing-local-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Can you please help us?’: Broken HVAC systems still plague local schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sept. 17, Brittany Thomas received a text message from a distressed teacher at Merrick-Moore Elementary School. The air conditioning had broken down at Merrick-Moore, where Thomas is PTA president, and teachers were so uncomfortable that many threatened to call out of work, the teacher said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCan you please help us?\u201d Thomas recalls him asking. \u201cIt\u2019s 80 degrees and teachers are sweating through their clothes and the kids can\u2019t learn\u2026the front desk staff is saying they feel sick because they\u2019re so hot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Brittany and her husband Aaron say they called the district and met with the school\u2019s interim principal. Yet <\/span>more <\/span>than a week went by, and the heat did not subside.<\/span><\/p>\n

Merrick-Moore is just the latest Durham elementary school grappling with HVAC failures. At other schools, parents have been<\/span> urging the school system<\/span><\/a> for months to address broken air conditioning and other maintenance issues. Now some are demanding long-term solutions, worried that their public schools are becoming unsafe learning environments.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Merric-MooreHot and bothered<\/b><\/p>\n

For more than a week, the Thomases\u2019 third- and fifth-graders returned home daily drenched in sweat. Frustrated, the couple took matters into their own hands. On Sept. 25, they arrived at the school at 7:30 a.m. carrying two large fans for their children\u2019s classrooms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was really struck by how hot and how humid and just how unpleasant it was in the building,\u201d Aaron Thomas said. Students were sent home at noon that day due to the heat.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On Sept. 26, as indoor temperatures remained high, Aaron Thomas contacted Millicent Rogers, who chairs the Durham school board.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are kids there with asthma, there are kids with sickle-cell anemia, there are teachers that are pregnant, there are teachers going through menopause,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThis is not an environment they should be forced to stay in.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rogers responded that day, acknowledging his concerns. \u201cThis is not the experience we want students and educators to endure,\u201d she replied. \u201cAdministration is working as quickly and diligently as possible to provide longer term solutions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Aaron was not satisfied. \u201cI think she was trying her best to make me feel better,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I wanted a timeline and specific next steps, and that was not what we got.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On Sept. 27, the air conditioning at Merrick-Moore finally roared back to life after the 11-day outage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHVAC and chiller issues at Merrick-Moore have been addressed,\u201d Clifton Williams, DPS Facilities and Operations Director, wrote in an email statement, responding to an inquiry from The 9th Street Journal. \u201cThe repair was completed on September 27, 2024, and the chiller is now operating and cooling all areas of the school.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But after the HVAC repair, temperatures swung in the opposite direction, said Brittany Thomas. \u201cMy daughter was shivering in school because now the building was 64 degrees.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Broader Concerns<\/b><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, parents at other Durham elementary schools are raising similar concerns about ongoing maintenance problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"temperature
Recent humidity readings in a Club Boulevard Elementary classroom. Photo courtesy of Theresa Dowell Blackinton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Theresa Dowell Blackinton, a mother of two at Club Boulevard Elementary and former PTA president, said the school\u2019s HVAC system continues to deteriorate. District leaders postponed planned renovations at Club and three other elementary schools in 2023 to pay for the increased costs of building a new Durham School of the Arts, now budgeted at more than $240 million.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Blackinton first raised concerns about conditions at Club five years ago, she says. Since then, she\u00a0 has repeatedly met with district and school administrators to request a timeline for school renovations. She says the school\u2019s HVAC system consistently malfunctions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The district has taken some action to address maintenance and HVAC concerns at its schools. The school system has spent more than $15 million dollars on IAQ (Indoor Air Quality) improvements over the last two years, Williams said in an <\/span>email statement <\/span><\/a>to The 9th Street Journal. In May, Durham school leaders <\/span>devoted<\/span><\/a> an additional $2 million in federal funds for HVAC and building repairs. The district also approved a $1.7 million contract with a consulting firm, Turner & Townsend Heery, to assess building deficiencies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Dowell Blackinton worries that the district is wasting money on temporary fixes rather than addressing root causes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPretty much every day, they have to call it in,\u201d she said. \u201cSomeone comes over, makes a temporary fix, and then that starts again the next day. But the obvious solution is replacing the HVAC system. They’re just tossing things down the road that still have to be done, but also spending all this money in the meantime.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Temperatures are not the only concern \u2014 humidity levels are so severe that teachers are tracking daily readings in a spreadsheet, said Dowell Blackinton. Classroom roofs are leaking, books and papers are curling, and paint is peeling off the walls, she added.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe kindergarteners were doing a basic activity, and they could not cut their paper because it was so humid and the paper was so wet,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dowell Blackinton, who frequently volunteers at the school, has observed \u201cfuzzy mold growth\u201d on kindergarten bookshelves and in the art classroom. In August, she said, a kindergarten teacher had to bleach chairs and tables because of mold, while the school counselor had to discard moldy furniture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a disaster,\u201d she said. \u201cWe can\u2019t keep sending our children into subpar environments and expecting them to learn.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Clifton Williams, the school system\u2019s facilities director, said the district is investigating complaints at Club.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking at areas throughout the building and discussing the next steps to address any items that were found,\u201d he said in an emailed statement. \u201cWe have contacted a 3rd party contractor to do IAQ testing and suggest the next steps for remediation, if needed.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently, the HVAC system is operating and providing cooling in all areas of the school. Our department will continue to stay in contact with the school to address any repairs that need to be made,\u201d he continued.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Dowell Blackinton thinks it\u2019ll take much more than temporary HVAC fixes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to continue to get worse,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then what happens when the building is at a breaking point here, or at Merrick-Moore, or E.K. Powe?\u201d she asked. \u201cWhat are they going to do with all of these students when the school is unusable and they’ve just let all this basic maintenance go?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lauren Sartain, a former PTA president at E.K. Powe Elementary School, was a vocal advocate when temperatures in her school exceeded 90 degrees last school year. Now she says she is disappointed, but not surprised, that schools across the district are still facing similar maintenance challenges.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems unclear what the district’s longterm strategy is for dealing with these persistent building issues,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Parents seek clearer answers<\/b><\/p>\n

Conditions at Merrick-Moore have now returned to normal, to the Thomases\u2019 relief.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, they remain disappointed by an ongoing lack of communication, particularly from district leaders. They also wanted a clearer repair timeline.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over their three years at Merrick-Moore, they say the air conditioning has broken down annually. But they often hear about it from their children and teachers \u2014 not the school.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re both really big public school supporters in principle,\u201d Brittany said. \u201cBut at the same time, it’s hard not to feel the need to go elsewhere when communication is just such a consistent issue.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Above: Photos of Merrick-Moore Elementary by Kulsoom Rizavi \u2014 The 9th Street Journal<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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