Parents upset over broken elementary school air conditioning units
RAEFORD, N.C. (WTVD) -- A broken elementary school air conditioning unit won't be repaired until next spring, leaving many Hoke County parents upset.
The unit is in Rockfish Hoke Elementary School. Last week, parents received letters from the school's principal, Shawn O'Connor, detailing the repair schedule. O'Connor said maintenance employees had worked on the unit every day since the start of the year, but it finally blew last week.
The letter explained the parts needed to repair the aging unit would take months to receive, so instead, a complete replacement would be made in Spring 2015.
Until then, Freon and fans would be used to keep the children comfortable. O'Connor added windows are open during the day, as well.
"Today the fans are working because it's not hot outside," said Kelley Maggy, whose daughter is in the first grade. "Tomorrow when it's back up to 75, 80 degrees, the fans do nothing but stir the hot humidity."
"We're in flu season," Maggy added. "That's a petri dish."
Maggy and other parents said they were opting for half-day schedules to keep their kids from sitting in the heat. Lillian Bolick, the mother of another first-grader, said she pulled her son from the school's after school care after he was drenched in sweat Monday.
"I asked him, I said, 'Hey, did you guys go outside? Were you running around, playing?' and he said, 'No, we've just been in the cafeteria,'" recalled Bolick. "And the aftercare worker, well, she looked miserable."
Maggy and Bolick said they reached out to the school board and administrators this week, and are dissatisfied there is not a more immediate solution to the problem. They said the AC unit issues date back to last school year.
"The time to do something was probably over the summer or even some time last year when they repeatedly tried to repair the unit and it wasn't working," said Bolick.
A school system spokesperson and O'Connor, who is in his first year as principal at Rockfish Hoke Elementary, said they were not aware of the details behind previous years' problems. This year they're reassuring parents they'll do everything to make the children comfortable, until they can receive a proper new unit.
"I want to make sure to be transparent," said O'Connor, admitting his front office is stuffy, as well. "I know it's not ideal, but we're addressing it."
"We are aware and we're doing all we can to make sure they're comfortable," said spokeswoman Jodie Bryant. "It's not as much as a cost issue as it is a time issue, and it's priority for the maintenance department."
Some parents said they may opt to pull their kids out of the school permanently.
"We've talked about pulling them out and putting them in other schools," said Maggy. "We have talked about looking at our finances to see if we can squeeze enough money to put them in a private school where our voices would be heard because honestly, we're not being heard here."
"If the problem continues to go on, I feel like he may not be a student here very much longer," said Bolick.
