RALEIGH, N.C. — The Wake County Public School System has dismissed students early more than 10 times this week because of heating and ventilation issues since classes resumed from Thanksgiving break.
The senior director of communications for WCPSS, Sara Clark, confirmed 11 early dismissals over Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at multiple schools.
Two of those early dismissals have been at West Lake Elementary School in Cary.
Lwiza Escobar Garcia said parents received a note on Monday to pick up their children at 11:30 a.m. and a notification to do the same on Wednesday. Escobar Garcia, a parent of a bilingual household, shared a Spanish version of the alert sent Monday as well as the notification written in English for Wednesday.
Some parents in Wake County are livid knowing at least 10 schools in the district have dismissed students early because of heating issues.
In late September, the Wake County school district leadership announced a more than $214 million gap in funding for deferred maintenance costs, such as HVAC repairs and replacements. On top of not budgeting for updated equipment, WCPSS Chief of Facilities and Operations Mark Strickland outlined another major problem exacerbating the issue: staffing.
“We are woefully understaffed. We haven’t added staff in key departments in a number of years for positions like HVAC,” Strickland said. “I think it is worthwhile to note it didn’t happen overnight. This has been going on for many, many years.”
Students in districts from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Durham Public Schools, Guilford County Public Schools and Wilson County Schools have either dismissed students early or closed schools altogether because of heating issues this week.
Escobar Garcia said enough is enough.
“I think it’s a really big concern,” Escobar Garcia said.
Escobar Garcia’s daughter attends West Lake Elementary School.
She was notified of school being let out early on Monday and Wednesday, each time creating a work disruption.
“I think we are missing the ball. This is not something that happened just at our school in our little spot,” Escobar Garcia said. “Our leadership really should hone in on these areas of priority, of ensuring that these, you know, bare bones things are being taken care of.”
Strickland confirmed the division of the Facilities and Operations Department that services WCPSS has only eight hired staff members. He said much of the help is contracted out to vendors.
“I think it comes down to budget and priorities,” he said. “We just need to continue to state our case about what our other needs are. It will take many, many years to get back to where we need to.”
Meanwhile, moms and dads like Escobar Garcia said the school district needs to rectify the situation sooner rather than later.
“It’s exhausting. Being a parent is a lot of work already,” she said.
Strickland confirmed WCPSS has a 50% vacancy rate for HVAC employees.
“We are a large district, and we have a lot of equipment. It takes a lot to keep it going,” Strickland said.
There are 199 schools in the district, with about 161,000 students enrolled. Wake County has the largest public school district in the state, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.