LUMBERTON — The loss of heat at Rosenwald Elementary School in Fairmont is more evidence of the need to build new public schools in Robeson County, according to the chairman of the Board of Education.
“It definitely has,” said John Campbell.
When students and staff arrived at the school Tuesday morning, they discovered there was no heat in the wing that houses the cafeteria, media center, speech center and classrooms for pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first-grade students.
“The real problem is there was no heat on a three-day weekend and it was extremely cold Tuesday morning,” Campbell said.
The school board chairman, Public Schools of Robeson County Superintendent Shanita Wooten and Assistant Superintendent Karen Brooks-Floyd were at the school, located at 301 Martin Luther King Drive, Wednesday morning. Campbell said portable thermal heat pump/air conditioner units had been installed, and the rooms were warm and the students were engaged and learning.
But the loss of heat is a symptom of the district’s aging schools, Campbell said. It is not rare in a system whose youngest school was built in the mid-1980s.
“Last year, Pembroke Elementary lost heat for almost two months,” he said.
The Rosenwald problem highlights the need to build new schools, he said. The problem is getting money to build them.
“It definitely does,” Campbell said. “Whether it’s from the governor, whether it’s from the federal government, whether it’s from the Board of Commissioners. There is an urgent need for funds to build new schools.”
For now the district will keep the school’s heating and air-condition systems operational as best as possible, and when necessary install the portable heating and air-conditioning systems that have the added benefit of allowing the temperature to be set in each individual room.
“It’s a good solution until a more permanent solution is found, until our ship comes in and whatever waters it comes in on,” Campbell said with a laugh.
Wooten echoed Campbell’s sentiments about aging heating and air-conditioning systems and the need to build new schools.
“Each season we deal with a steady stream of weather-related maintenance issues. Without enhanced financial support from the county, the district’s capital woes will not only continue, but are expected to grow,” Wooten said. “This is a concern because we must limit the disruptions to instruction caused by poorly-heated buildings.”
District leaders must carefully examine the effect of deficient and compromised heating systems and then address the issue of deferred maintenance and “band-aid” solutions caused by financial and budgetary constraints, she said.
“Without the increased funding and prioritized list of capital projects, the backlog will grow,” Wooten said. “We need to calculate the costs of needed repairs and compare that to the cost of erecting new schools.”
District leaders and maintenance personnel were at Rosenwald on Tuesday to assess the situation and begin fixing the heating problem, PSRC spokesman Glenn Burnette III said Wednesday.
“Maintenance director Earney Hammonds, along with a team, assessed the conditions of the current heating system,” Burnette said. “After assessing the heating system needs, the maintenance department decided immediately to begin the process of installing portable thermal heat pump/air conditioner units in the classrooms requiring immediate attention, the media center and the cafeteria.”
Twenty-one portable units were installed at a cost of more than $28,000, he said. That doesn’t include the mini-split systems needed for the cafeteria and media center.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration compliant small space heaters were being used as a temporary heating source, he said. The space heaters were installed by the district electricians to verify the electrical circuits is not overloaded.
The space heaters were in use when class let out on Friday, Burnette said. At some point during the weekend custodial staff unplugged the space heaters, leaving students and teachers to arrive to a cold classroom on Tuesday morning.
“After a long holiday weekend with record low temperatures, it takes a significant amount of time to heat concrete and cinder block,” Burnette said.
Fixing Rosenwald’s current boiler system will not be easy, he said. It is outdated and requires parts that are outdated and hard to find.
Another problem is that the R22 Freon needed to fix the system is no longer used as an industry standard and is hard to secure.
And it will cost about $25,000 to fix the boiler system, he said. It is an expensive investment in an outdated system.
“In order to even repair the current, old system, walls would have to be torn out to remove parts that may not be available,” Burnette said.
In 2016, when a plan was floated to close 30 schools and build 14, as much as $9 million in savings each year was offered as a way to pay for the plan. The schools would have all been built to use solar energy, with no utility bill.
The system has been talking about building new schools since West Lumberton Elementary was lost to Hurricane Matthew, but lack of funding has the effort stalled.
