by Yuliya Panfil

As District schools finish their second pandemic year, and parents cautiously anticipate a return to normalcy next fall, families at Powell Elementary School are girding for a fight. The school’s HVAC system, which has been broken for the entirety of the COVID pandemic — even as some kids returned to in-person learning — is still inoperable. Parents and the school Principal are afraid it may not be fixed by the fall, forcing unvaccinated children to resume school in boiling hot classrooms without proper air circulation.

Parents say the HVAC problems started shortly after Powell’s renovation some five years ago, and that the school has been relying on space heaters and spot coolers since at least Spring 2019. The festering problem took on a new urgency this year due to concerns over improper air circulation in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and parents began applying increasing pressure on the DC Department of General Services (DGS) to make repairs.

In March, parents heard welcome news: Amanda Ou, a DC Public Schools facilities manager, said DGS had allocated funds to fix the system and would be awarding a contract imminently. But two months later the contract has yet to be awarded. Ou recently emailed the school principal, O'Kiyyah Lyons-Lucas, to say that due to “legal issues” the contract will need to be rebid — for the third time.

Lyons-Lucas wrote to parents recently that school will open in the fall even if the HVAC isn’t repaired by then, but that it would “create a very uncomfortable environment for students and staff.”

“We have spot coolers in all our classrooms and common spaces and talking over the noise of a spot cooler with a mask and desk shields is one of the most challenging things that we do each and every day,” Lyons-Lucas wrote in her email to parents. “We all go home hoarse from trying to yell above the units and through our masks.”

With temperatures reaching the 90’s in late August and early September, parents and staff also worry the spot coolers won’t be able to properly cool the school, particularly as student capacity limits decrease. On Thursday, Lyons-Lucas tweeted a photo of the thermostat in her office: it read 86 degrees.

Today was rough! It’s hard to focus & hear when your office @Powellelem is 86 degrees at 1PM and you have a spot cooler and a fan in the background. @DCDGS @dcpublicschools it’s been 5 years! pic.twitter.com/m188OvvA00
— Kia Lyons-Lucas (@LeaderinHeels) May 20, 2021

“Today was rough!” her tweet read. “It’s hard to focus & hear when your office @Powellelem is 86 degrees at 1PM and you have a spot cooler and a fan in the background. @DCDGS @dcpublicschools it’s been 5 years!”

And of course a broken HVAC prevents proper air circulation, a serious COVID concern for elementary school kids who are not able to be vaccinated yet.

On May 13, Ou wrote to Lyons-Lucas that “we are still committed to getting all of the HVAC systems online and running for SY21-22.” However, the school community is skeptical given the extensive repairs needed.

“We’ve heard that tune before,” said Mourad Moursi, a parent of two Powell students, and who has been leading the effort to repair the HVAC system. “Every year the principal and parents would appeal to DGS to fix it. We don’t understand why it’s been failure after failure after failure. Don’t these people have kids?”

DGS Director Keith A. Anderson, in an email to Petworth News, said that DGS is “taking necessary measures to ensure that Powell Elementary School has a properly functioning HVAC system before students and staff return to school in the fall,” and added that DGS “aims to award a contract and overhaul the HVAC system this summer.”

Meanwhile, exasperated with the delays, parents are organizing to apply pressure on DGS and DCPS. They're circulating a school-wide petition and have reached out to Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George and Ward 4 State Board of Education Representative Frazier O’Leary for support.

Lewis George’s office said Friday the Councilmember has been in contact with DC Public Schools Central Office and the Department of General Services about the HVAC repairs since January, and was promised last week that the repairs would be made in time for the next school year.

The Councilmember’s office recommended that concerned parents and educators testify about this problem at DC Public Schools’ budget oversight hearing on Thursday, June 3rd, and at the Department of General Services’ budget oversight hearing on Wednesday, June 16th.

Community members can sign up to testify at the DCPS budget hearing on June 3 by filling out an online sign up form, or sign up to testify at the DGS budget hearing by emailing their name, phone number, email address, and organization to facilities@dccouncil.us.

Moursi said he hopes the Powell community can make enough noise to finally fix the broken HVAC after years of delay.

“I know it’s a hard year for a lot of people,” he said. “But you can’t have kids sitting in classrooms that are 88 degrees, or sending kids back during COVID without an HVAC system.”