An unknown odor and a number of sudden illnesses with similar symptoms at Covington Middle School led emergency personnel to evacuate the building and move all children and staff across the street to the Covington Recreation Center on the last day of January.
Investigators determined a couple of days later that a malfunctioning gas stove and ventilation hood in the school’s cafeteria had released carbon monoxide into the school. The stove was removed from the building the following week, and Alleghany Highlands Public School officials said an extensive search detected no other leaks anywhere else in the facility.
That one problem led to big changes for the 581 students in grades five through eight who call Covington Middle School their home. In-school instruction came to a screeching halt, and for the next six weeks, all classes were held virtually — with teachers working from their homes and students from theirs.
Late Wednesday night, AHPS officials announced that after extensive inspections and repairs, virtual learning will end this week, and starting Monday, middle school students will attend school in a building the district says is safe for both children and staff.
“While this situation has been incredibly challenging for everyone involved, it has also been an opportunity for growth for our school system,” AHPS Superintendent Kim Halterman said in a news release. “We’re extremely thankful for the community’s patience and the extensive support of so many valued state, local, and regional partners as we navigated through a complex and sensitive situation.”
The release said that the building — parts of which opened in 1940 — served as the longtime location of Covington High School, until the city’s school district consolidated prior to the 2022-23 school year with the surrounding Alleghany County School District. It has undergone comprehensive safety inspections by both state and local entities, as well as extensive air quality and building systems testing, and has been deep-cleaned.
In addition to the work done in the cafeteria, the district listed additional repairs and upgrades that had been recommended, including:
- Adding carbon monoxide detectors throughout the building.
- Repairing an older air-handling unit on the third floor to more efficiently ventilate that part of the building.
- Cleaning the boiler room to remove excess moisture.
- Repainting the boys’ locker room to more completely repair previous water damage
- Cleaning out radiators throughout the building.
Halterman said in an interview last week that while the virtual learning process had worked as planned, she, the board and the rest of the administration wanted to reopen the school as soon as possible.
“We know that the bulk of our students perform more successfully in person,” Halterman said. “In saying that, I’m not trying to delegitimize the fact that we have kids who do quite well in virtual instruction.
“But we also have a strong desire to prioritize in-person instruction.”
Parents and teachers remain wary.
A few days after the school was first closed, a scheduled fire marshal inspection found 14 violations of fire code. None of those listed had any possible connections to the carbon monoxide leak, according to Will Merritt, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Fire Programs. However, district parents, employees and the AHPS board of education did not want to rush the children back into the building until everyone was sure it was safe.
Virtual instruction for the 581 Covington Middle School students, which is now in its second month, will continue for at least through this week, AHPS announced March 6, the first day of the division’s two-day spring break.
Halterman declined last week to say what was still being checked but said once the district closes the investigation and declares the facility safe, it will offer more details.
“The board and I are both committed to transparency and sharing findings about these investigations and evaluations as soon as we have them,” Halterman said. “But one of the challenges in this very moment is unfortunately, we don’t have quite the full picture yet. But things are starting to fall in place.
“So the task before us right now is to make sure we have the full picture and then continue our evaluation of that information. We’re getting a lot closer on that, and we’re looking forward to hearing more as soon as we can. But we really want people to know we’re spending a lot of time and evaluation right now.” 
An unprecedented situation
There is little dispute that this incident is the biggest challenge the district has faced in its three years of existence. The investigation has been a nonstop process ever since officials from the Covington Department of Public Safety made the decision to evacuate the building.
According to a press release sent out the following day by the city of Covington, less than 10 students and teachers reported they were suffering ailments such as headaches and nausea. All but one person, a school staff member, were treated and released at the scene. The staff member was taken to a nearby hospital but was not admitted.
Multiple agencies, including the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, the Roanoke Valley Regional Hazardous Materials Team, the Virginia Department of Health and local emergency management teams, worked through the weekend to determine possible causes of the odor.
In a memo released Feb. 5 by VDEM, emergency responders said they had found heightened amounts of carbon monoxide being released from a gas-powered stove in the school’s cafeteria. The overhead exhaust fans were also malfunctioning.
According to the release, all other gas lines were working as designed and no other hazards were detected.
As for the students and staff members who had reported feeling sick, the Virginia Department of Health said six were diagnosed with elevated levels of carboxyhemoglobin, which can occur when someone is in a poorly ventilated place that might have higher than normal amounts of carbon monoxide. None were hospitalized.
While that was a bit of good news for the school district, other problems have lingered that have made school officials wary of getting back to business as usual.
The VDH closed its investigation on the health issue on Feb. 1, but since then, an unusually high number of illnesses with symptoms similar to those who were treated the day of the evacuation have been reported in Covington and the surrounding area. According to a press release sent out March 5 by the Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts, about 150 additional reports of elevated carboxyhemoglobin levels have emerged since Jan. 31.
“People continued to not feel well, so they continued out of their own volition to go and get checked out at the hospital,” said Christie Wills, a spokesperson for the Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts. “It’s not possible for those to be connected to the school exposure because once people get out into fresh air and they leave the area that’s the source of the carbon monoxide, then they begin to recover.”
But the diagnoses do have the attention of the health department officials.
“This cluster of reports of slightly elevated levels of carboxyhemoglobin is unusual and is being investigated,” according to Dr. Cynthia Morrow, the districts’ health director. “We are working with the community, healthcare systems, and other agencies, including the Department of Environmental Quality, to better understand the situation. We are also conducting one-on-one case investigations of those who were recently found to have elevated carboxyhemoglobin levels.”
Morrow added that so far, none of the patients who have been diagnosed have been hospitalized or experienced a significant illness.
“There are a number of industrial facilities in the area,” Virginia DEQ spokesperson Irina Calos said. “However DEQ is not aware of any exceedances of carbon monoxide permit limits for those facilities.”
She also referred to an Environmental Protection Agency website that lists other potential sources of carbon monoxide.
Answers still needed
Parents and teachers still have more questions.
When the agenda of a planned school board work session on Feb. 3 was amended to allow public comments from community members, staff members and the school board, it resulted in an emotional meeting, with all parties expressing frustration and a lack of trust that students and personnel should return any time soon.
The meeting was held in the middle school’s auditorium, although Halterman said that, since then, only inspectors and maintenance personnel have occupied the facility.
Among the questions that came up was how long carbon monoxide issues had been present prior to the evacuation and whether extended low-level exposure could lead to long-term problems. Two middle school parents — Amanda Tomasek and David Clark — shared stories about their children coming home feeling ill on multiple occasions in the weeks prior to the school being closed. Another community member, Caleb Ward, said he had brought to the meeting blood test results of a friend’s middle school child, which showed higher-than-normal levels of carbon monoxide.
Concerns such as an inefficient number of carbon monoxide detectors in the building and the kind of training maintenance personnel receive were broached. Halterman said both of those questions have now been addressed, but some wanted to know why it was only addressed after the fact.
“There’s a lot of things you guys have had to deal with,” Clark said to the board. “I don’t envy your position at all. But who’s responsible? There’s got to be someone responsible for making sure that this equipment is not faulty. A stove should not be faulty.”
Veteran math teacher Lorri Saville, who is retiring at the end of the school year, also spoke. She said she and a number of other teachers also had higher-than-normal carboxyhemoglobin levels and were wary of returning until they could be assured that there was no danger of additional carbon monoxide leaks.
Each of the board members followed the public comments with statements of their own, united on promising not to return to in-school instruction until everyone agreed that the middle school was safe. Halterman said that the district had added a page on its website dedicated to frequently asked questions and information on the progress being made on the middle school.
Halterman said the district had also added a specific email address that members of the community and employees could send other questions and concerns they had. But since the Feb. 3 meeting, the community input has appeared to diminish.
At the Feb. 17 school board meeting, time was designated on the agenda for more public comment, but only one person, Bobby Buchanan, spoke. He shared concerns for the well-being of his wife, who is in the final trimester of her pregnancy and worked on the floor of the building where the strongest odor was detected on Jan. 31. He requested the district release the training records of employees in charge of building safety as a gesture “to build back trust with the parents and children you serve, not to mention your employees.”
Buchanan in a later interview said he had followed up by making a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request for documents related to inspections and investigations conducted during the week. He said his original request was denied because of employee privacy laws, attorney-client privilege and discussions that were held in closed portions of school board meetings.
Buchanan said he will continue to pursue school training records, as well as documentation of inspections conducted by the city of Covington, which owns the middle school and leases it to the school district.
The school board has held one meeting since then, a work session on March 2. Halterman, who gave a brief update on the continued work being done at the school, said no community members had requested to speak at the meeting.
She said in an interview March 7 that a small number of emails have been sent to the dedicated address. Several board members said they’d received numerous text messages and voicemails in the days following the school closure, but none had any further comments at the March 2 meeting.
It could be the case that the list of concerns was basically laid out during the first few days after the school was closed. Halterman said that the district is doing its best to address each question that has been asked and will share all answers once the investigation is complete.
“[All concerns] had a serious nature to them,” she said. “The types of concerns are being investigated. It’s really important that we make sure we’re not taking any unnecessary risks.
“It’s hard to categorize everything. Parents may have this one type of concern and staff may have this type of concern.”
Halterman also commended the ability of both the staff and students to make a quick transition to virtual learning.
“They are doing a fine job of focusing on the task at hand, making sure that education is as complete as we can provide the kids in this situation — especially in the springtime,” she said. “Springtime is a really important time in teaching and learning.”
Halterman believes the district will have the middle school building ready to open soon, but that call cannot be made until the last of the concerns are addressed.
“With all of these groups, the board and I will be just as committed as we can be to sharing the findings of the investigations, the evaluation process — all these pieces — just as soon as we’re able. We just want to make sure we have the complete picture.
“And because this was such a serious concern that was raised, we really had to start with finding out all of the facts we can.”
