In less than two weeks, kindergarten through fifth-grade students will flood the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) again for the first time since the school’s closure in the spring of this year.
CMS teacher Amanda Thompson-Rice asked school officials if the classrooms have the proper air circulation to keep faculty and students safe.
Teachers have said they shouldn’t have to worry about the air they breathe, however, it is a concern for them and for educators and students, WBTV 3 reported in late October.
The school district released its weekly preparedness report for bringing students back to in-person learning, which found that the outlook for facilities wasn’t good in the most recent one.
The school facilities category was listed in the red zone; according to the preparedness plan, WBTV reported. Red zone categories indicate that should students return to the building, the conditions would more than likely lead to “sustainable community spread of COVID-19.”
“If you’re in a room that doesn’t have proper air ventilation, there’s no way you can say my child is safe,” Thompson-Rice said, WBTV reported.
The news station reported that concerns about the district’s HVAC system have been constant all summer long.
“The HVAC is constantly broken… This is the building you’re asking us to go back into?” teacher Elizabeth Mills said during a board meeting over the summer, WBTV reported.
District officials expect the conditions to improve as more work is done on the buildings before the students return on Nov. 2.
