For years, Andrea Bryant has had to purchase DampRid, a moisture absorber, for her 8th grade science classroom in Lucille M. Brown Middle School. The classroom has little ventilation and is often humid, because of a ceiling leak over her lab sink.

The night before the school year began heavy rain fell in Richmond, leaving Bryant with an even stronger leak the day she came back to her classroom. She said she had to open another case of the dehumidifier two days after. 

“I’ve reported and I know that it’s on the list of tickets for them to get it done, but I have to use DampRid to keep my room from having mold in it,” she said. 

Bryant, who has taught at the school for more than 12 years and is president of the Richmond Education Association – the union representing Richmond Public School’s teachers – said that the issues of air conditioning and ventilation have persisted in her building for as long as she can remember. 

“The bigger issue is that our buildings have not been a priority,” she said. “Not just for the district. That is for the state and the city as well.”

As a new school year begins, maintenance issues, including the presence of asbestos and faulty air conditioning systems, have been raised in the division’s buildings.

Eight schools were flagged as having air conditioning concerns a few days before the school year began, said division spokesperson Alyssa Schwenk. Another two schools had AC systems not fully functioning on the morning of the first day of school.

Technicians worked over the weekend and on the first day of school to address the concerns, allowing the buildings to be at working capacity before students walked into the schools. 

“We're committed to solving problems in the short term as we push for the long-term solutions our students deserve,” Schwenk said, acknowledging that the division is fully aware of the issues. 

Teachers also raised the presence of asbestos in July, as The Richmond Times Dispatch reported this week that Elizabeth D. Redd Elementary had a mold issue visible in the school’s auditorium in July. 

The concerns are not new. A detailed 2024 assessment of RPS buildings contained at least 18 reports of RPS buildings having outdated and poor HVAC systems needing replacement, as well as floor and ceiling tiles made of asbestos that were leaking and causing mold. 

Redd Elementary was one of the schools in that report, which detailed that the school’s hallways, windows, classrooms and auditorium’s ceiling contain asbestos. 

“Those pictures [of mold] were kind of disheartening,” said Bryant, adding that she’s heard about similar mold and humidity issues at other schools in her role as REA president. 

Similar to RPS’ HVAC issues, public schools in Henrico County have also faced air conditioning issues, as at least four schools reported experiencing humidity in their buildings and some classrooms are still using temporary units.

Asbestos issues force auditorium closure

The issues highlight the seemingly never-ending demands on the division to keep up with its aging facilities, even as it works to get the buildings modernized. 

A third-party contractor began removing the floor and ceiling tiles from Redd’s classrooms, a conference room and the auditorium starting in April and continuing from June to July, according to an August asbestos abatement report on Redd Elementary provided to The Richmonder. Certain areas were restricted from public access, and the contractor conducted daily air sampling during June and July. The results showed that the presence of asbestos was minimal in the places tiles were removed from. 

School Principal Frenishee B. Smith sent an August 15 email to families noting the report and addressing the mold concerns from the auditorium. She wrote that it was cleaned on August 8 and “confirmed to be safe using professional testing.” 

But Schwenk said in an August 21 email that the auditorium has now been sealed off and “the situation continues to improve inside the space daily.”

Superintendent Jason Kamras confirmed that asbestos is present in buildings, but noted that buildings are only unsafe to occupy if the asbestos becomes airborne. 

“We don’t have any situations that I know of that are unhealthy,” he said. 

An attempt ‘to grab every last dollar and use it wisely’

The maintenance issues are widespread throughout the city’s school buildings, largely because of how old those buildings are. On average, an RPS building is over 80 years old. Schwenk also noted that the division has a HVAC team of three people addressing poor systems in multiple school buildings. 

The division is also tight on money. The 2024 report recommended that RPS would need to make $43.7 million in immediate repairs to its buildings. The division has a capital improvement budget for major projects like HVAC replacements of $2.5 million this year.

The age of the buildings, coupled with the division’s lack of funding for repairs, means problems like inadequate air conditioning are going to persist, Kamras acknowledged. 

“I don't want to give the impression that every room and every school and RPS is all set as it pertains to AC. Of course not,” he said. “AC systems … break down from time to time. We’re gonna patch when we can, where we need to and do our very best with the resources we have.”

He said that the division has applied for multiple state and federal grants, including a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that he doubts will come into fruition because of ongoing relations with the current Trump Administration. 

“We are trying to grab every last dollar and use it wisely. It’s just, the need is great,” he said. 

Bryant believes that the superintendent and RPS administration has the intent to try and fix the problems, and echoed Kamras in saying that the division is strapped for cash. 

“Decades of neglect can’t be fixed in five years or ten years,” she said.

Kamras ultimately noted that maintenance problems in RPS schools are part of a larger issue pertaining to historical divestment from public schools and the state’s underfunding of the schools. He mentioned the upcoming governor’s election and expressed that the division will work to show the next governor that investing in RPS is important.

Contact Reporter Victoria A. Ifatusin at vifatusin@richmonder.org. This article has been corrected to note the Capital Improvement Budget is $2.5 million in this school year.