Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Wednesday he was “extremely disappointed” that Covington Middle School was closed for six weeks after a carbon monoxide leak and that once he learned of the situation, his administration “worked really hard” to make sure the school reopened for in-person instruction.
“What we know is that at the heart of learning loss recovery is students being in the classroom,” he said. “That’s why this was a disturbing interruption of that effort.”
Youngkin’s comments confirming his role in the school’s reopening came in response to a question during an event in Richmond where the governor announced what bills he’s signed so far.
They followed a meeting Monday night of the Alleghany Highlands School Board, where board member Tammy Scruggs-Duncan said the Virginia Department of Education had strongly advised the district to bring students back if safety concerns had been addressed.
Both Superintendent Kim Halterman and board member Jonathan Arritt said that part of the VDE’s concern had to do with a misunderstanding that the Alleghany school system preferred the remote-learning model, something that both Youngkin and state Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera have said they want to avoid.
“You can chalk that up to another communication issue,” Arritt said. “The short answer is there was a misunderstanding of the circumstances and I think some of the people in Richmond thought it was very straightforward and that we were just making it complicated because we enjoyed [virtual learning.]”
The school was evacuated Jan. 31 after unusual smells were detected and several students and teachers became ill. The following week, the school board voted to close the school indefinitely to allow time for a variety of inspections after it was determined that a carbon monoxide leak had been discovered in the cafeteria.
For the next six weeks, all classes for the 581 students in grades five through eight were held virtually, with teachers working from their homes and students from theirs.
On March 12, school division officials announced that after extensive inspections and repairs, virtual learning would end, and that starting March 17, middle school students would attend school in a building that the district says is safe for both children and staff.
On Monday, in-school activities resumed at the school. Teachers returned to their classrooms for a work day, while students involved in the spring musical gathered for their first in-person rehearsal in the middle school. Regular classes were scheduled to begin again on Tuesday.
Mixed feelings at board meeting
On Monday night, the school board held a meeting that at times became contentious as some parents and teachers faulted the local school administration for not being forthcoming.
Lorri Saville worked her way down a list of concerns that she and some of her fellow Covington Middle School teachers had expressed over the past month.
Most of the issues she presented were the result of faulty communication between the faculty and those who were determining when to end remote instruction. Saville, a veteran math teacher who has announced her retirement effective at the end of the year, said many teachers were frustrated. They felt out of the loop, and morale among the group was low, she said.
“We feel defeated,” she said. “We feel like we’re not being heard.”
But at Monday’s meeting, the board and division administration received the message that much still needs to be done as far as communicating, taking accountability and regaining the public’s trust is concerned.
And while the process that led to getting kids back in school is now in the past, the board acknowledged that its goal of transparency and providing information in a timely and easy-to-find manner is not yet being fulfilled.
“I really wish that we as board members would have figured out a better way to help with that flow of communication,” said board member Arritt, who spoke for the rest of the panel following Monday’s meeting. “In the early days of the incident, there was a fog of information, so it was a problem.”
The return to in-school instruction was approved by a unanimous vote by the school board on March 11, following a lengthy closed session when the board was given information on the progress of repairs and on the safety of the facility.
A press release sent out the next evening provided many of the details that had been shared with the board, including a list of inspections and repairs that had been made during the previous five weeks. The release also included a link that gave a brief explanation and timeline of the situation, how it was evaluated and why it had been determined that the building was now safe. The site also includes copies of an air quality report conducted by Richmond-based ECS Mid-Atlantic and a mechanical systems assessment done by Facility Dynamics Engineering of Columbia, Maryland.
Halterman said that all of the essential repairs and upgrades, including boiler room repairs and the addition of carbon monoxide detectors throughout the building, had been completed. Plans were being made for more extensive repairs, she said.
Parents want better response from district
Some parents do not consider the online information to be as comprehensive as needed.
“So far, all I have is more questions,” said Stacy Farrar, an Alleghany County resident who said she has a child in the seventh grade. “I don’t feel like anything really has been answered. … I’m not getting any answers from anyone.”
Farrar questioned why other reports, such as the fire marshal’s report filed in early February by the Virginia Department of Fire Programs, were not on the site.
“You guys are asking us to send our kids back into a building that somebody got really sick in,” Farrar said. “Can anybody answer what happened?”
Amanda Tomasek of Clifton Forge said her child has been treated for long-term exposure to carbon monoxide and questioned the determination that there had been no lingering leak prior to the day the school was evacuated. She said she considered the incident to be criminal.
“It is unacceptable,” she said at Monday night’s meeting. “I know nothing’s going to change and you’re going to open that school tomorrow.
“I understand that. But to expect me to trust you guys with my child is absolutely ridiculous. We should have options.”
Halterman said after the meeting that she understands that some parents might decide not to have their children return to school. The district will support them, she said.
“We want to make sure that families can make decisions that work for them, so we understand that parents have choices and those kinds of things exist.
“But we’re really looking forward to a week here where we can get reacclimated.”
AHPS spokesman Darrell Gleason said that the district got good news attendance-wise on the first two days of the middle school’s reopening. There were fewer absentees on both Tuesday and Wednesday than on Jan. 30, the day before the incident.
Each board member addressed the middle school situation following the public comment period, although members of the audience had to be asked not to interrupt them on several occasions, and one person was removed by the sheriff’s department after multiple disruptions.
Recently elected board member Bob Umstead said he had promised to remain reserved in his first three months on the board, and he said he would have much more to say in April. However, he did say that he ran for the board seat with the intention of keeping children safe and making sure all of the district’s employees were provided a thriving work environment.
“In this day and age, it seems the adults in the school system need as much protection as the kids,” Umstead said.
He also encouraged members of the public to become more involved with the district, including attending and speaking at board meetings.
“Say what you’ve got to say because until the air is cleared, we cannot fix these problems,” he said. “Bitterness and anger are doing nothing but ripping us apart.”
