RICHMOND, Va. — When a chiller at Barack Obama Elementary School broke down in May, school officials said it caused conditions that resulted in mold growth over the summer. The mold was so severe that it delayed the start of school in August by 9 days.
A CBS 6 investigation has now found no documentation that Richmond Public Schools (RPS) performed the required preventative maintenance, as detailed in a product manual, on the equipment in the years before it malfunctioned.
Lack of preventative maintenance plans
The school closure left some parents frustrated and wondering whether it could have been prevented.
"Their education does not deserve to be delayed because you didn't take the school as a priority," one parent previously said.
"I feel like, yes, a lot of these issues could have been avoided," another parent said.
A 2024 facility condition assessment found the chiller at Obama was actually in "fair" condition at that time. So how did it partially break down two years later?
In pursuit of that answer, CBS 6 submitted Freedom of Information Act requests for maintenance documentation from January 2024 through August 2026.
We asked for districtwide and Obama-specific preventative maintenance plans, but no records existed for either.
RPS' own auditor highlighted that gap in comments to the school board during an August meeting.
Watch: Richmond has 'zero' preventative school maintenance, internal auditor says
"Currently we don't have the preventive maintenance mechanism. It's literally zero," Ziauddin Ahmed said.
The division's facilities team has also acknowledged similar issues.
"We're reactive. We're reactive every day," Interim Facilities Director Harry Chargois told a school board committee during a September meeting.
No documentation of maintenance tasks required in manual
CBS 6 located the manual that covers Obama's chiller. It includes a list of 27 preventative maintenance tasks that are required weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly.
But we found no documentation that RPS performed any of this work from January 2024 through May 2026.
It was only in June — after the chiller had already malfunctioned — that RPS said chillers in the division were cleaned.
Records showed RPS also contracted work on the chiller in August, which a spokesperson said involved preventative maintenance.
RPS declined an interview request for this story, but in a statement, it said the "majority" of its "preventative maintenance is performed in-house by our HVAC maintenance team." RPS said those measures include changing filters twice a year, inspecting and cleaning coils before the cooling season, and checking refrigerant levels.
RPS said it sought two independent assessments to find out what went wrong with the chiller, but that both were inconclusive. Therefore, the district said it does not have information suggesting additional preventative maintenance work would have extended the life of the chiller.
That said, RPS acknowledged it could do better.
"We recognize opportunities to strengthen our preventative maintenance program, particularly in establishing consistent schedules and improving documentation. Facilities is currently working to develop a more comprehensive, proactive maintenance program across the division, with greater emphasis on manufacturer recommendations and routine equipment maintenance. While the cause of the compressor failures at Barack Obama Elementary remains undetermined, these improvements will help us better maintain our equipment and reduce the risk of future failures," RPS spokesperson Clay Barbour said.
Richmond isn't alone. A recent nationwide report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that 47% of school districts faced chronic facility issues that disrupted learning in the 2024-2025 school year.
Watch: Millions of learning days lost: Federal report shows school facility issues stretch beyond Virginia
"You have to pay your salaries, you have to pay teachers, but you can put off that preventative maintenance one more year until you can't," Jacqueline Nowicki, with the GAO, said. "It's largely a capacity and a funding issue."
While recent audits and investigations have identified operational and management issues in RPS' facilities department, Barbour said the district faces additional challenges including staffing and funding constraints. On top of that, some of its buildings, such as Obama, are more than 100-years-old.
