Parents say faulty air conditioning is making kids sick at Huntersville school
Parents at a Huntersville elementary school say their children are coming home sick because of faulty air conditioning units.
Long Creek Elementary School, which enrolls more than 500 students near the Charlotte-Huntersville border, has experienced HVAC issues since late August. Classrooms on the second floor are stuffy and hot, as well as common areas on the first floor that include the cafeteria and gym, according to parents.
“The heat has affected children in that they’ve come home with nausea,” Matt Hawkins, the school’s PTO president, told The Charlotte Observer. “Several staff members (who work) on the top floor say it is just unbearable. They open windows, but that’s about the best they can do for the most part.”
Hawkins, a parent of two children at the school, says Long Creek school leaders have contacted district officials, but he’s afraid CMS “is not taking this nearly as seriously as it should.”
Long Creek Principal Kristal Tuck was not available for a comment, but Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ spokesperson Susan Vernon-Devlin told the Observer some schools have seen isolated pockets without HVAC.
“Building services have been working diligently to correct all cooling issues in all schools as quickly as possible for the comfort and safety of our students and staff,” Vernon-Devlin said.
Heat struggles
Ashlee Carnes, a mom to a fourth-grade student at Long Creek, says the school has experienced recurring HVAC issues since 2021.
Each year, Carnes says, the district solves the issue only to have problems again when summer heat returns. Mecklenburg County has seen temperatures rise into the mid-90s since schools started Aug. 28. While the younger grades at Long Creek have been in air-conditioning, the upper grades on the second floor have struggled, parents say.
“For a third year in a row, our school doesn’t have A/C and it’s even hotter than it was before,” Carnes said.
She’s received conflicting messages from CMS about the status of repairs — from district personnel Friday that HVAC was fixed and from School Board Chair Elyse Dashew Monday that the district is still working on issues.
Hawkins, who has been inside the school several times, said a tile fell in the cafeteria and students were eating in classrooms last week.
Parents say they want the school’s HVAC issues to be addressed quickly.
“Our maintenance staff, teaching staff, and administrative team are some of the best in the district,” Hawkins said. “Our students work hard and have achieved growth in two consecutive years. It is absolutely outrageous that they should have to work in these conditions.”
Staff shortages
A heat wave last week led nine schools in the Wake County system to operate on adjusted schedules because of HVAC systems requiring repairs, the News & Observer reported. Heat indexes were 100 to 105 degrees, according to the National Weather Service, even forcing some schools to close.
School officials in Wake County blamed maintenance staffing vacancies and HVAC parts shortages for conditions that affected schools.
The exact number of HVAC vacancies in CMS was not available, but the district has suffered from staff shortages across all positions. The sign-on bonus for workers is $1,000, and the district is having a hiring event for several positions Thursday, including teachers and transportation and maintenance workers. The event is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library-Independence Regional.
