HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — Henrico County Public Schools is working to address heating, ventilation, and air conditioning issues at several schools before students return to class on Aug. 24.
The district received $10 million from the county's capital improvement plan to address plumbing, electrical, and HVAC needs, along with an additional $2.8 million for day-to-day operations. That initial $10 million allocation was doubled to $20 million in July. Superintendent Amy Cashwell and the division's new Chief of Operations Greg Dunaway say the funding is being used to address current repairs ahead of the first day of school.
HVAC issues affected several schools at the end of the 2025-26 school year, including Varina High, Glen Allen High, and Fair Oaks Elementary, drawing concern from parents of impacted students.
Watch: Parents frustrated over broken AC at Henrico elementary school
Cashwell said keeping learning environments in top condition is a priority.
"An important part of making sure that our learning environments are up to par is thinking of all the things that make a top school system," Cashwell said. "And part of that is certainly our heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems and making sure that they're running at top conditions at all times."
Cashwell said the district is committed to communicating with families when issues arise.
"If something occurs in a building where there would be an impact to the learning environment, temporary or long-term, we are committed to making sure that in partnership with our school leaders at the sites we're communicating that to stakeholders, staff and families so that everyone has an awareness of what an issue might be," Cashwell said.
Dunaway expressed confidence in the team working to prepare schools for the new year.
"I'm really excited to work with our facilities team who are a very dedicated team of individuals working hard every day behind the scenes for our students," Dunaway said.
Cashwell said the funding will be directed toward a range of maintenance needs.
"Whether it's replacing aging systems, some may have already been up for replacement, some may be experiencing difficulties and we find they need something more than a replacement. So you can expect to see those dollars put to use for things like chiller replacements, repairs, preventative maintenance, all the things that assure our systems are up to par," Cashwell said.
If issues arise after school begins, Cashwell said the district will act quickly.
"When that would happen we are very quick to make sure that we're assessing the situation putting any mitigation measures in place that may be temporary, spot coolers, fans, those kinds of things to make sure that our environments are safe and conducive to learning," Cashwell said.
However, concerned Henrico parents previously said fans fall short as a solution.
"Fans don't really do much but push hot air around, and if you're already hot and sweating, it's not really doing much," one parent, who asked to remain anonymous, said.
Cashwell said every HCPS building will be ready to welcome students on Aug. 24.
"We're ready to open our doors at every single building and welcome our students and that's always our goal. At any given time a school may experience some sort of a mechanical issue; again it may be just impacting one classroom, an area and so we're gonna mitigate that," Cashwell said.
In response to questions about facility maintenance staffing across the county's 74 schools, HCPS said in part that temporary spot coolers and high-capacity fans are being installed to reduce impacts as the district addresses HVAC repairs, and that at any given time the number of schools experiencing an issue could change.
The district also released a statement acknowledging the ongoing challenges:
Henrico County Public Schools continues to address HVAC repairs while also installing temporary spot coolers and high-capacity fans to reduce impacts. While many of the repairs involve a small number of classrooms or isolated areas, others are larger scale.
School administration deeply regrets that some of our teachers and staff are working in buildings and classrooms experiencing air conditioning outages. We apologize for hardship this causes and remain committed to bringing relief as quickly as possible.
As Dr. Cashwell mentioned last week, at any given time the number of schools experiencing an issue could change.
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