Henrico schools makes facilities leadership changes amid HVAC concerns

HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — Henrico County Public Schools faces $92 million in deferred maintenance needs, according to a third-party mechanical facilities assessment conducted this year. While the division says spending that amount upfront is not a reality, it now has a 10-year capital improvement plan to address the deferred maintenance and hopefully prevent future HVAC failures.

CBS 6 Investigative Reporter Melissa Hipolit had the opportunity to sit down with Greg Dunaway, the brand new Chief of Operations for Henrico County Public Schools, and brought him concerns and questions from families across the division.

Years of on-again, off-again HVAC issues at multiple Henrico County schools left families feeling they had no choice but to speak out.

A parent a at Pemberton Elementary said the situation was unacceptable.

"I am pretty frustrated as a parent, as a leader in the school. It is astonishing to me that we could start a school year with five classrooms with no air,” Sarah Demmick said.

A parent at Short Pump Elementary echoed that frustration.

"Henrico County does and can afford to fix this. It should be able to,” Emily Walker said.

"People are feeling extreme frustration. They’re just wondering what is going on here. Why wasn't this fixed before? Why is it happening again?” Hipolit said to Dunaway.

"The perception is that the system keeps going out at the school, but the reality and what we are seeing are different components within a complex system going out over a period of time that may make it appear that the entire system repeatedly goes out," Dunaway replied.

When pressed on why families should accept that explanation, Dunaway pointed to work done over the summer.

"I know another thing from my observation is our in-house team has been working very hard all summer to put in the work to ensure reliability of our systems," Dunaway said.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Short Pump Elementary mom frustrated by more than a year of AC problems

New maintenance contract

To bolster preventative maintenance across the division, Henrico County Public Schools entered into a new joint contract with county government partners on Sept. 1 to assist with preventative maintenance on a quarterly basis.

"The eight contractors that we have on contract now, will be coming in each of the schools four times a year to conduct preventative maintenance and inspections of the equipment to ensure reliability. And so our team has been doing that over time, but it's a large scale and scope, and we need to provide reinforcements," Dunaway said.

When asked whether he was satisfied with the level of preventative maintenance in place before this contract, Dunaway was direct.

"No, my assessment I think probably aligns with the organization's assessment that we needed to apply more resources," Dunaway said.

Emails obtained through public records request

While the school division says approximately 18 schools are currently experiencing problems with air conditioning, a public records request submitted by CBS 6 uncovered an email sent by Henrico Deputy County Manager Brandon Hinton on Aug. 26 to various members of HCPS.

In the email, Hinton said the county had a count of more than 40 schools that were of concern as heat increased — including his own child's school, which he claimed did not have air conditioning in his son’s classroom. Hinton said he was hoping for an update and noted that he had called the school division's Head of Facilities, Susan Moore, about the issues, but that she "didn't seem to have significant concerns."

Hipolit asked Dunaway whether that response was appropriate.

"This time of year, HVAC is one of our top priorities. So any type of input we receive about an HVAC issue at a school, our team is deployed to go assess and resolve if they can and apply temporary measures. That's been my observation with the facility's operation as a whole," Dunaway said.

When asked directly whether he had confidence in Moore's leadership, Dunaway repeatedly redirected his answer.

"I have confidence that we have an operation, and we are deploying systems and protocols that can ensure that we are resolving HVAC issues or providing temporary measures wherever they may arise in our school system," Dunaway said.

Pressed further on whether that confidence extended to the Director of Facilities specifically, Dunaway said:

"I have confidence in our facilities operation as a whole, to include the team members that work there and their dedication towards making sure that we're creating safe spaces for our students," Dunaway said.

After our interview, Dunaway told the School Board he is realligning the facilities team and Susan Moore will no longer be the Director of Facilities, and instead will move to a newly created position, Director of Capital Outlay and Planning.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: 18 Henrico schools have AC problems. Parents want answers.

Special education concerns

A second email uncovered through the public records request, sent Aug. 27 by the Coordinator of Assessment and Remediation at Douglas Wilder Middle School to Moore and others, alleged the air conditioning in the building had been consistently broken for years. The coordinator also alleged the county was breaking the law by not meeting the requirements of some students' special education plans that require a comfortable environment.

When asked whether Henrico County had broken the law with regard to those 504 plans and conditions inside schools related to air conditioning, Dunaway said the division takes those situations seriously.

"We're constantly engaged as a team on any items like that, and so that will go through school leadership and the proper channels, and we will huddle as a team to discuss it and make sure that again we're applying — if it is a situation tied to HVAC issues — that we're applying temporary measures, and/or relocating individuals, or if need be, if it's a larger issue that can't be resolved immediately, that we would make a call to dismiss or close the school," Dunaway said.

We followed up with HCPS’s Chief of Communications Eileen Cox who sent us the following statement:

Henrico County Public Schools prioritizes safety of students and staff along with continuity of learning for all. The school division does not knowingly break the law.

For student privacy reasons, I am not able to speak specifically about an individual student’s learning plan or any personal information. Instead, I can share in general terms, steps that are taken during a heating or cooling issue to address individual student needs such as situation you described.

When a school experiences an air conditioning problem, technicians are dispatched to assess the issue and make repairs or order necessary parts to resolve the issue. To support students and staff in affected areas, classes may be relocated to a cooler location within the building, and portable fans and air conditioning units (also known as spot coolers) may be used while system repairs are made. If a student within an affected class is medically fragile or has learning plan that includes accommodations related to the classroom environment, those are evaluated and appropriate action is taken to mitigate impacts to the student and their learning.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Multiple Henrico schools have broken HVAC units

Running equipment to failure

The third-party mechanical facilities assessment found the division only replaces some equipment upon failure, which results in many systems operating beyond their useful life.

When asked whether that is a sound maintenance model to run equipment to failure, Dunaway pointed to the division's long-term plan.

"I think it speaks to the additional resources we're applying for the long term. You can see with the 10-year capital improvement plan a heavy investment in addressing these aging systems and pieces of equipment over a long period of time," Dunaway said.

Asked whether he understood why running equipment to failure had become the model in the past, along with not having a robust preventative maintenance contract with outside contractors, Dunaway said he could only speak to what he has observed since joining the division.

"I can speak to my experience since I've been here in the past month, and I see an organization that has been applying all of the available resources they have to try to match the scale and the scope, and this added investment in resources here is going to help us progress and ensure more reliability," Dunaway said.

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