Jan 15, 2025
GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — Page High School parents and students say they are dealing with HVAC issues and are fed up.   During a school board meeting on Tuesday night, students and parents said issues with the HVAC system at PHS are impacting students learning. Before the snowstorm sent students home, PHS students had an online learning day due to heating issues on Jan. 8. “We've missed numerous school days because of this issue, and it serves as a reminder that our learning environment isn't a priority,” PHS Student Body President Cameron Cooper said. Cooper is one of many people who spoke at Guilford County’s Board of Education meeting on Tuesday night. He described the issues with the heating and air conditioning in the classrooms as a “constant battle." “Some rooms are so cold that it feels like an igloo, while others feel like saunas, and when the air conditioning does work, it rattles and bangs, making it nearly impossible to concentrate,” Cooper said. School board members weighed in after hearing parents and students share their concerns. “As it relates to the current HVAC needs at Page, one technician described it as like a pot of spaghetti. It's all matted together and gummed up. And if that's true of an HVAC system, how true is that of the even larger issues in public education? And it comes from these enormous things like years of underfunding and neglect and failure to prioritize,” Guilford County School Board At-Large Member Alan Sherouse said. Due to heating and issues with HVAC units at PHS, students had to learn outside of their classrooms several times this school year. They were remote at least two times in December. Several parents remember PHS was on the list of schools to be rebuilt. It was included in a bond referendum that was passed in 2020 and 2022. “PHS's community was promised multiple times. I was promised multiple times that we would get a new school ... It remains overlooked. The recent facility challenges highlight a campus that ... is obsolete ... It's embarrassing,” said Adam Duggins, a parent. “The original master plan back in 2019 had budgeted for us to rebuild close to 50 schools. Given the inflation that we've experienced since COVID and raised construction costs, we're obviously not going to be able to get to that number ... What we are going to be able to rebuild currently is about 21 of our facilities,” Guilford County Schools Deputy Superintendent of Business and Operations Julius Monk said. The district is having to use deferred capital funds to make replacements until the district passes another bond or reprioritizes which schools are going to be rebuilt next. Monk said the district has been working to address these issues. “The units had gone out, and we had some issues with the boiler, and so we had a team of contractors ... go over to Page. They're having to go through each one of the rooms and individual units to make whatever repairs necessary for that particular unit as well as to address any issues that they may be having with the boiler or the pumps,” Monk said. He said the district has plans for more improvements at the school. “We have a roof and HVAC projects under design for the media center. We also have an auditorium renovation that is under design ... Just last month, the board approved an HVAC project for the auditorium that we're going to be starting in the next couple of weeks,” Monk said. GCS said the projects for the HVAC and roof for the media center and renovation auditorium at PHS are expected to start the bidding process in February. 
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