Charles City superintendent addresses school heating issues

While most of a previous winter snowfall covered roads and kept students out of school, it was a far different situation inside the classrooms for Charles City schools.

A lack of heating inside both schools resulted in backlash from parents on social media about the learning environment and questioning decisions made to keep the school in session. And while no parents spoke on the situation during Tuesday night’s regular school board meeting, it was imperative that school representatives addressed and acknowledged the situation.

When kids and teachers returned from the winter break, they received an unexpected surprise with the lack of warmth in the classrooms. Superintendent of schools David Gaston said the issue was something that caught him off guard.

“Prior to our students and staff returning, we had inspected the boilers that Sunday,” he said, commenting that they were less than a year old. “They were fully firing on Sunday, but on Monday they were partially firing.”

The malfunction resulted in temperatures plummeting in both schools, but more particularly in the elementary school. Gaston said that letters were sent home to parents to advise the kids to dress warmly while the repairs were being made.

“We had a few parts that malfunctioned that resulted in the boilers drying up,” the superintendent continued. “We had contractors come in and had some in-house work done to get things up and running again as quickly as possible.”

But the heat didn’t come soon enough. After three days of suffering through the cold, Gaston elected to close the elementary school on Jan. 5 due to the near freezing temperatures. Meanwhile, the high school continued on with administration making adjustments and moving classes around.

“That was probably a hard decision to make to keep the kids in school,” Gaston continued. “And as you saw with the weather last week, we didn’t want to use any of our time built in for snow days.

“I understand the inconvenience that occurred and we kept parents informed about the situation,” he continued. “We worked feverishly on getting the heat back into the schools.”

Gaston commented that the boilers were fixed and that heat was making its way back into the schools. He also added that some classrooms are still colder than others.

“You can look at the high school for example and there are some classes that are in the 60-degree range while others are in the mid-70s,” the superintendent said. “We have did our best to relocate some of the classes as the problem with those rooms comes down to the HVAC units for that specific area.”

High school senior and student representative to the school board Asia Prentiss said that the environment is very noticeable.

“I was in a class today and it was freezing,” she said. “Everybody was wearing their heavy coat to stay warm. It’s hard to stay focused on education when the room is that cold.”

District 3 representative Martha Harris thanked administration for their support of addressing and keeping the parents notified during the situation.

“I know that was a tough time for the principals and the concerned parents and I just want to thank everyone for their patience and cooperation as we worked through this,” she concluded.