RICHMOND, Va. -- Several Richmond schools struggled to keep classrooms heated Monday morning after thefirst official freezeof the season.
Nakisha Stovall Dantzler sends her 10 year-old-son to school every day to get the best education he can. She encourages her son to stay focused, but worries about distractions.
That was the first thing she thought of Monday when she found out he and his Fairfield Court Elementary schoolmates started the day without heat in the building.
"I really think they should be comfortable. They shouldn't have to worry about no heat and have to wear coats in class to be comfortable. I want him to be able to pass the SOLs and be able to study," Nakisha explained.
Tommy Kranz, who is in charge of facilities with Richmond Public Schools, said boiler issues cropped up after Sunday night’s freezing temperatures.
"Depending on when we lost the system that particular period of time was without heat. Since we did have a cold overnight, we could have created a very cool building. It was a quick fix, though. We basically did a manual override of the system to bring it back up within 30 minutes,” Kranz said.
Kranz told CBS 6 News after that, it would take hours for the school to warm up.
There were also other troubles that Kranz and his crews had to contend with Monday at Albert Hill Middle and John B Cary Elementary. Kranz says facilities crews have been inspecting heating systems in Richmond schools for two weeks in advance of the cold weather and they didn’t detect problems.
Tommy Kranz
“We would have liked to have had all the things that we knew were operational last week to have stayed operational on the weekend and be fine on Monday, but that just didn't happen. Those systems have been tested out but things will happen. They're mechanical and we were able to address them very quickly,” Kranz added.
