In another instance of long-term underfunding coming home to roost, my kid’s school, Morehead Elementary, has a major heating system problem that’s resulted in two evacuations this month. They’re now planning to relocate the entire school indefinitely while they wait for parts.
I heard from a teacher that her classroom hasn’t had functional heat for weeks. A parent brought her a space heater, which doesn’t heat the room well, but the kids huddle next to it to stay warm on cold days.
Every day the before-school teacher calls the district to remind them that the heat is off in the cafeteria. When they turn it on, cold air blows out. I didn’t realize until today how lucky we are that it’s been a mild winter. (Well, apart from the imminent climate catastrophe)
OK we have a plan! Kids are being split between an admin building an another local elementary school until the heating system can be fixed, hopefully within a few weeks.
Buses might be an issue, and the system is already stressed from busing all the kids that live in the Mac from hotels, so we’ll have to figure it out. The moral of the story is, we need more funding for our public schools!
Oh, and we still don’t have a state budget or any increases in pay for our underpaid public school educators and support staff because Republicans don’t want low-income people in NC to have healthcare and refuse to support a budget that will expand Medicaid. So there’s that.
Update from DPS:
