Henrico Schools officials outline new preventative maintenance plan to tackle ongoing HVAC issues

On any given day, about 18 Henrico schools experience air conditioning outages, according to Henrico Schools officials, with classroom temperatures spiking above 80 degrees.

HVAC issues have been widespread across the division not only for the past few weeks, but also during several years of hot summer weather and cold winter months. Since school started on Aug. 24, two schools have been forced to close or dismiss early because of extremely hot temperatures.

But the division is now enacting a more “proactive, data-informed” approach to HVAC maintenance, said new HCPS Chief of Operations Greg Dunaway, that involves a restructuring of the Department of Facilities leadership, a new $3.9-million preventative maintenance contract, and more involvement from county government.

At Thursday’s Henrico School Board meeting, Dunaway – who has only been with HCPS for a few weeks following the retirement of previous Chief of Operations Lenny Pritchard – presented the department’s year-long plan to better address aging HVAC systems before issues occur:

• a $3.9-million joint preventative maintenance contract with county government that employs eight new HVAC vendors and ensures each school will receive preventative HVAC maintenance four times a year;

• a new joint county-schools HVAC leadership role that went into effect June 1 and helps HCPS establish vendor contracts and prioritize maintenance issues;

• the division of HCPS’ Department of Facilities into two branches: Capital Outlay/Planning and Operations/Maintenance;

• four new facilities leadership roles (two of which are already filled) including a dedicated facilities communication liaison;

• a 10-year, long-term Capital Improvement Projects plan designed by a third-party assessment;

• independent and internal reviews of communication systems and issues involving HVAC maintenance.

Since establishing a joint preventative maintenance contract with county government on Sept. 1, HCPS has now increased its number of HVAC vendors from only 4-6 to about 12-14, according to HCPS spokesperson Eileen Cox. Dunaway said that a year from now, preventative HVAC maintenance should be completed at all schools.

“Having more staff, having more hands, more eyes, allows us to complete the [preventative maintenance] work more efficiently,” he said. “It's not that [preventative maintenance] wasn't being done before. It's that now it's able to be done more efficiently and in a more timely manner with more people.”

But the department is still struggling with nine outstanding vacancies for full-time HVAC technicians; HCPS currently has six full-time technicians for all 72 school buildings.

Dunaway also outlined a number of other problems that have caused ongoing HVAC issues this past summer:

• a rise in the number of extreme temperature days;
• lack of availability from local vendors servicing the entire Richmond region during the summer season’s peak demand;
• supply chain and equipment delays that last from weeks to months;
• and the layering of newer equipment on older systems that requires more expertise.

Irving: 'Incumbent upon us to deal with [issues] head-on'

At Thursday’s meeting, school board members urged the division to look more closely at how climate change and rising temperatures could continue to worsen conditions in school buildings.

HCPS’ 10-year capital improvements plan, based on an assessment conducted by Moseley Architects, factors in equipment age and useful life when prioritizing buildings, but does not factor in how prepared buildings are for extreme weather events, Dunaway said.

“This summer was the hottest in recorded history,” said school board chair Madison Irving (Three Chopt District). “And I think we’re probably just going to continue to surpass it. It’s been the hottest year in history again and again, and it’s not going to stop. So it is incumbent upon us to deal with that head-on.”

Due to equipment delays, Dunaway said the division will have to continue to depend upon temporary solutions such as spot coolers and mobile AC units, which he said are the “best suited” options for cooling areas quickly. But at some schools, those temporary units will have to be in place for several months.

If those temporary solutions are not enough to significantly cool classrooms, HCPS leaders will have to make the “difficult decision” to close buildings, Dunaway said.

During this past summer, HCPS spent $2 million and completed 17 HVAC projects. Henrico’s Board of Supervisors awarded $20 million in mechanical project funding for this school year, $10 million of which is supporting ongoing maintenance projects.

At a board of supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Short Pump Middle School teacher Mary Morrissey urged the county government to further partner with HCPS to ensure that real progress is being made in HVAC repairs and not just “band-aid” solutions. Temperatures in Morrissey’s classroom reached above 92 degrees last week, and the entire school ended up closing due to dangerous heat.

“I feel like there's something that's missing, and that's the expertise that understands these systems” she said. “How can we bring something together to form a coalition between the two groups, the school board side and [the supervisors] side?. . . I just wish that we could hear more about it in a way that was giving us solutions instead of waiting for the band-aid to come.”

What comes next

Henrico Board of Supervisors Chair Roscoe Cooper (Fairfield District) said that County Manager John Vithoulkas and his team have spent “significant time” over the past three weeks “working closely” with HCPS Superintendent Amy Cashwell to address the school HVAC issues.

Cooper also said that Vithoulkas led the “first-of-its-kind procurement” that brought together the new $3.9-million joint HVAC contract earlier this month and is currently in the process of hiring a third party to analyze HCPS’ work-order processes and equipment maintenance.

HCPS facilities staff meets several times a week with the new joint government-schools HVAC & Mechanical Systems Director Eric Sears, including a weekly meeting involving Sears and the entire facilities department, said Dunaway. However, HCPS staffers still work directly with contracted HVAC vendors.

Through the new Facilities Operations & Communications Liaison role, which the division is currently hiring for, HCPS leaders also hope that top-down communication about HVAC issues can be improved and school principals will be more involved and informed in decisions.

“The leadership split within facilities, I think that is long overdue,” said Irving. “I think that this is about empowering our building leaders to be informed decision-makers and have a true seat at the table to know what’s happening and guide that process.”

Dunaway also promised more transparency from facilities leaders, saying that the department will commit to sharing specific timelines for parts deliveries and repairs with school principals.

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s government and education reporter. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.