Powell Elementary on Upshur Street in Petworth

by Yuliya Panfil

In Spring of 2021, Powell Elementary School’s HVAC system was still broken after years of delays by DC Department of General Services and DC Public School to resolve. This left children and teachers to shout over the noise of spot coolers and learn in temperatures reaching the mid 80’s. By the end of last term, parents and the school Principal were afraid the HVAC may not be fixed by the fall semester, forcing unvaccinated children to resume school in hot classrooms without proper air circulation. By May, after the Petworth News article and fierce parent complaints, DGS reported that after failing three times to complete a contract to fix the HVAC due to paperwork mistakes, they finally had a repair vendor contracted and would have the HVAC fixed before school started.

Now, DGS says they won’t be done on time, as there is one part on back order.

A week before the start of the school year, and in the midst of the COVID Delta variant surge, Powell Principal O'Kiyyah Lyons-Lucas shared some very unwelcome news with parents: the HVAC is still not fixed in one of the school’s buildings.

“Building B has not been resolved due to a part delay. Building B includes the following grades and spaces,” wrote Principal Lyons-Lucas. “Auditorium, CES, Kinder, 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, Main Office, Health Suite, Counselors’ Suite, OLL’s Office, Boys and Girls Restrooms and the Main Lobby. Temporary spot coolers have been installed in the spaces mentioned above.”

According to Lyons-Lucas, the required part is supposed to ship on August 31 to the school, and will take at least a week to install once it arrives.

To make matters worse, while Pre-K will eat in their classrooms, the school plans for 4th and 5th Graders to have breakfast in the auditorium, which has no functioning HVAC. Lunches will be in the cafeteria, with large groups of unvaccinated children in one space without masks.

Reached for comment, DGS spokesperson Donna Harris confirmed the part is set to arrive on August 31 but could not commit to a week-long timeline. She said the part would be installed “in early September.”

When asked about the commitment by DGS to have the issue resolved prior to the start of the school year, DGS offered a press release about they and their vendor receiving an award for their citywide HVAC program. DGS did not respond when asked for a list of the schools that received completed HVAC systems.

DCPS published an email from Chancellor Lewis Ferebee on August 18th that claimed the school system has “a strong, layered approach to preventing the spread of COVID-19…” Enhanced air filtration and cleaning is part of their approach — and the broken HVAC at Powell is causing parents to be concerned the rest of the precautions may be similarly not followed through.

“Mayor Bowser says the facilities and our school systems are ready to go. As we see with Powell, this is not true. A broken HVAC system means we are not ready,” said Kavitha Kasargod-Staub, the parent of two Powell students. “We are a week away and right now I am terrified of sending my children back and exposing them to unnecessarily high-levels of risk of a virus that could kill them.”

The combination of a broken HVAC and the decision to hold indoor lunch, despite a surging Delta variant, is making Kasargod-Staub and other parents reconsider sending their kids to school. Amid the surge, parents across the District have been pushing for a virtual school option, including through a city-wide petition, but thus far Bowser has not budged from her requirement that the vast majority of students return to in-person learning.

“A week of broken HVAC in Building B still seems very unsafe to me, particularly the first week, when many kids may have recently returned from travels,” wrote another parent, Robin Appleberry, in an email to Petworth News. “It also sounds as though it's very likely to be longer than a week, even if the part arrives when it's ‘due’ (which sounds a lot like a very loose estimate, rather than a guarantee).”

Movable HEPA filter in a Powell classroom.

Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George said she is “deeply frustrated” by the HVAC repair delays, after DGS had committed in May to addressing the problem.

“When I visited Powell on Wednesday to assess its readiness for the start of school, I was alarmed that some classrooms remain without AC and that DGS doesn't expect the issue to be fully resolved until early September,” Lewis George said. “This is completely unacceptable. The students, teachers, staff, and administrators at Powell deserve fully-functioning AC when they restart school – and parents shouldn't have to worry about the temperature or air circulation in their kid's classroom. This compounds the justified concerns families have about returning to in-person learning amidst a global pandemic.”

Asked whether she supports a virtual option for Powell students until the HVAC is fully replaced, Lewis George said her stance depends on the robustness of the spot coolers and HEPA air filters DGS has installed in affected classrooms, hallways and the cafeteria. She said she plans to visit Powell this week with DGS's director to assess whether these safeguards are enough for students to safely return. In parallel, she said she is working with DCPS Central Office to expedite the arrival of student devices in case going virtual is deemed necessary for students whose classrooms are impacted.

DGS’ Donna Harris clarified that whereas the HVAC will help with air circulation, air cleaning is actually conducted with HEPA and MERV filters, which DGS installed in schools — including Powell — as part of its COVID response last year. In other words, filters to clean the air are in place, even in parts of the school in which air is coming cooled through spot coolers rather than the HVAC.

Regardless of what happens at Powell, parents are raising the alarm that these incidents are cropping up at schools across the District, some with parents and administrators less equipped than Powell to harangue DGS and lobby with council members.

“Schools across the city have the same major risks and DCPS's answer is to let each school battle it out by trying to fight for limited resources and solutions that really should be designed and implemented across the board,” Appleberry wrote. “This has the result of meaning that the loudest schools get the most help and kids get wildly different levels of safety.”

Transparency continues to be a problem, as does DGS’ problem of effectively managing this project, their vendors, and meeting community commitments.