Kanawha County's school board heard an unusual number of public complaints Wednesday, including those about mold, the early August school start date and continued air conditioning failures.
"If animals were left in a car in these temperatures, I guarantee someone would be calling the police," said Dinah Adkins, co-president of the county's chapter of the West Virginia Education Association teachers union. "Our children and our employees deserve better."
School board member Ryan White said near the end of Wednesday's meeting that the school system should look into doing another audit of its maintenance needs.
"I want an audit that says what we are doing and what needs to be done and the cost of doing it," White said. "I also want it to focus on how much money we are spending on things that may break down due to us not properly maintaining and/or replacing when it should be replaced. If the audit would also tell us how our maintenance department operates compared to other school districts, that would also be valuable information."
Kanawha school system officials couldn't say Wednesday evening exactly when a maintenance audit was last completed. Maintenance director Terry Hollandsworth said the state Department of Education did one five to seven years ago.
"I understand that we're not going to be able to pay for everything that's on there," White said. "But if we don't know what we have, then I think we're doing ourselves a disservice. We can't put our heads in the sand."
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.
Kanawha schools Superintendent Ron Duerring has said the county has old AC systems and not enough money to replace them or make major upgrades.
Several people showed up to Wednesday night's meeting to complain about the AC problems and what they said was a school year that started too early this summer. Most schools started classes Aug. 8 in Kanawha, making it the first public school system in the state to bring students back.
"There are teachers in full body sweat, children complaining of headaches and breathing," Antonia Vaughn told the board. "... Classrooms are overloaded, the buses are overloaded, deodorant only goes so far, and that's just as far as education and thinking and paying attention goes when you're in a hot environment."
She suggested starting school later, when there's less heat and humidity, and said winter and Thanksgiving breaks could be shortened to do so. This school year's calendar gives a week off around Thanksgiving and two weeks off around Christmas.
"Too many of these systems are not working - have not been working for years," Adkins said. "It is time to develop a plan to address the air conditioning and heating systems."
She said more schools should have closed to keep students out of the "unbearably hot conditions." She handed board members photos of thermometers in classrooms at Capital High, which she said contrasted with Hollandsworth's temperature readings there.
Adkins said the temperatures in Capital's classrooms last week - before the school closed alongside the six others Friday before reopening Monday - ranged from 81 to 91 degrees.
She said it's perhaps time to eliminate all out-of-state travel except that needed for supervising students, purchase only the "minimum of new technology" and perhaps ask voters for higher property taxes to fix the issue.
Board members also heard Hollandsworth speak Wednesday about ongoing efforts to reduce mold in St. Albans High. He said Belfor Property Restoration, the company that's been working on the county's separate flood-affected schools this summer, will clean the school again over the weekend.
He said Teays Valley-based Pinnacle Environmental did air sampling at the school after St. Albans High administrators reported visible mold, and Belfor cleaned the freshman wing and library before classes began Aug. 8. He said more sampling was done.
Hollandsworth said that after school started, more visible mold was reported on a band instrument case and another piece of equipment in the band room, and Belfor did more cleaning.
He said air sampling results came in this week, showing the building as a whole has considerably lower mold levels than outside but has some places that still need more cleaning.
Dan Alvis, a parent and step-parent of St. Albans High and Hayes Middle students, told the board he wanted to point out the connection between the mold issues, the heating and cooling issues and the lack of maintenance. Alvis, who said he's a paramedic and indoor air quality expert, listed off the possible symptoms of mold and Kanawha schools that have had mold problems in recent years.
He noted the school system's website states the district "is dedicated to providing a world-class education that ensures success for every student in the 21st century."
"I have to question this mission statement when 'world-class education' does not include 'reasonable facility to accommodate the education,'" he said.
Reach Ryan Quinn at
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