As Kanawha County's public school system continued Monday to close schools due to air conditioning and power failures, the local schools superintendent said the county has old AC systems and not enough money to replace them.
On Friday, the school system closed seven schools, including four of its eight high schools, due to AC and power failures, meaning about one in 10 Kanawha public schools were closed that day. Four of the county's schools were closed Monday due to similar issues.
When asked why AC problems seem to be a recurring annual theme in Kanawha, Superintendent Ron Duerring said the district spent $23 million several years ago to upgrade many of its AC systems, including some of the systems that were in the worst shape. But he noted the district has 68 schools.
"Many of those systems out there are still very old, and there's just not enough money to cover putting all new systems in and getting them where they need to be," he said Monday.
In May, Kanawha's school board approved a budget for this school and fiscal year that slashed repair and maintenance funding by $300,000 compared to last fiscal year, though Duerring said such a cut would never reduce work on AC systems.
Unlike many counties in West Virginia -- about 20 out of 55 as of last fiscal year -- Kanawha doesn't have a 100 percent excess property tax levy. The current Kanawha excess levy provides the school system an extra roughly $44.2 million annually through the 2018-19 school year above what the regular levy provides.
A 100 percent excess levy would've provided Kanawha an extra $22.8 million in this fiscal year alone. The district sought a 100 percent levy in 2013, but three out of four Kanawha residents who cast ballots voted against it.
"I think that's something that the board will have to have some discussion about," Duerring said when asked whether the issues indicate that another levy increase should be pursued. "And certainly that could be something they might want to talk about in the future, but that's something I won't comment at this time on."
The district announced Sunday that Pratt Elementary and South Charleston High would be closed Monday due to no AC. South Charleston High was the only one of the seven schools closed Friday that stayed closed Monday.
Elk Elementary Center, which is near Coonskin Park, was closed Monday due to no power, and the district announced Monday morning that Midland Trail Elementary, in Diamond, would be dismissing at 10:30 due to no AC.
Kanawha school system maintenance director Terry Hollandsworth said the plan is to reopen all four schools Tuesday.
"[At] South Charleston High School, the chiller for the new wing, we're having some kind of crazy control problem, the chiller cuts on, cuts off," Hollandsworth said.
He said the AC manufacturer, Trane, had its workers work on the unit all weekend, but as of about 8:30 Sunday night it still wasn't running. Yet on Monday morning, Hollandsworth said a press of the reset button made it operate just fine.
He said Trane will go through the unit to make sure it's OK.
At Pratt Elementary, a chiller turned itself off over the weekend, and there will be portable AC units at the school Tuesday, Hollandsworth said.
He said the district missed the fact that the energy management computer program at Midland Trail Elementary had set the temperature there at 82 degrees Fahrenheit instead of 72, and the chiller couldn't cool the building fast enough to open Monday. The chiller should be able to cool the building by Tuesday, but window AC units are being brought in to ensure the structure is cool.
Vines grew into a transformer at Elk Elementary Center and caused it to trip, Hollandsworth said, and an Appalachian Power tree crew was working Monday to fix the problem.
When asked whether anything connected the fact that seven schools closed Friday, Hollandsworth said "it just happened."
When asked whether a lack of funding or workers is behind the school system's recurring air conditioning issues, he said: "I can assure that our board and our management team will do whatever we need to make sure that our children are taken care of for heating and cooling -- for anything really."
"Our board is dedicated to making sure I have the tools and resources I need to get it done."
The Kanawha schools closed Friday were Ben Franklin Career Center, Capital High, George Washington High, Grandview Elementary, South Charleston Middle, South Charleston High and St. Albans High. Though those were the only ones closed, other public schools in the county reported AC issues.
Jerry Comer, principal of Overbrook Elementary in Charleston's South Hills area, said the district fixed the AC problem in a fourth-grade classroom Friday. Heather Hill, a secretary at Nitro Elementary, said the school made a request Monday for the district to fix minor cooling issues in two rooms.
Hollandsworth said the AC system at Capital High, one of the schools that closed Friday, was working fine Monday, but said the system was bringing in the outside humidity. He said temperature readings were about 73-75 degrees on the first floor, and 78 degrees in some classrooms on the second.
Much maintenance work this summer had been focused on the schools damaged in the late June flooding. Two schools, Herbert Hoover High and Clendenin Elementary, were so damaged the district isn't planning to ever reopen them, and the district had to get two other flood-damaged schools, Bridge Elementary and Elkview Middle, fixed up to temporarily house the displaced Hoover and Clendenin Elementary students.
Crews continued as late as the week before school started Aug. 8 to repair air conditioning units at some Kanawha schools, but Hollandsworth had said parts of some schools would still be without air conditioning at the start of the school year.
"We continued to work on air-conditioning systems, while it did impact our time spent on preventive maintenance," Hollandsworth had written in an email to the Gazette-Mail. "We did continue with repairs. There will be some rooms without AC in some of the schools. But whole schools will not be without AC."
Duerring said Monday that the attention to the flooded schools was one factor in the recent AC failures.
"There was a lot to do with the flood situation so you really have to prioritize," he said, "and that was a priority to get schools open and ready in that area given what had happened."
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.