GHS tour answers some questions, raises others

When a story about students reporting poor conditions at a local school goes viral, and a few days later a sunny Facebook post announces that repair work is being done, that two state representatives, school officials and the media have toured the school to see for themselves what progress has been made, you might be tempted to sit back and think, “Whew, glad that problem is taken care of.”

And the announcement by Wayne County Public Schools about Friday’s tour of the hallways and classrooms was an absolute representation of one very important development.

There has been a lot of work done this week at Goldsboro High School since that presentation by three students at the Goldsboro City Council Monday.

But the press release — and the work completed — also left several critical questions unanswered about why it took three teenagers and a slideshow to get the ball rolling. 

When the story broke Monday night, many people who looked at the pictures were shocked by the conditions the students detailed inside the city’s historic school — and their description of everything from leaking roofs and ceilings when it rains, floors in disrepair, dirty conditions in the school’s restrooms (including a stopped-up toilet) to mold and infestations of roaches, wasps and mice.

One of the people who was disturbed by what he saw was House Majority Whip Rep. John Bell, who said he called fellow State House member Rep. Raymond Smith, who is a 1979 GHS graduate, that evening.

The next morning, he called school district officials to set up a visit to Goldsboro High School that day — Tuesday — so he and Smith could see the school’s condition for themselves.

The district could not accommodate a Tuesday tour, he said.

Not surprising.

There was obviously a whole lot that needed to be addressed before the district felt comfortable allowing state officials to walk through Goldsboro High.

That should tell you something. And we’ll get to that. But before we do, here’s what WCPS disclosed about their busy week at GHS:

There has been plenty of activity at the school this week — multiple maintenance trucks at the school daily and a whole lot of repair work going on. There also were a couple deliveries, among them one of wood and one of furniture.

Floors in two classrooms were repaired, including the one that looked like this Monday:

The school’s hallways were spotless.

The trash piled in bushes depicted in the slideshow’s opening photograph was gone.

So, what did the school say was the explanation for the flurry of work this week? We will get to that later.

But we will note that school officials did not deny that maintenance crews were dispatched to work at the school.

There were things, though, they said they could not yet repair.

Like the damage depicted where the ceiling and the walls meet was explained as a roof problem — where flashing had pulled away from the roofing material, creating a spot where water could come in.

But when, in its news release, the district said that the photograph of water pouring down from the ceiling into a trash can was “taken in February” and the issue was quickly corrected by Wayne Roofing Company, it clashed with what several parents told the New Old North via email this week.

Water was coming down in that same spot — into that same trash can — during Open House. In August.

They were there. They saw it.

One mother said she didn’t make a big deal about the water because it was clear the school was aware of the issue, and she assumed it had been taken care of.

But when she saw the photo Monday evening and asked her daughter about it, the teenager told her that every time it has rained since Open House, multiple trash cans had been placed in that same spot and standing water was all over the floor.

So, why wasn’t the issue reported — and corrected — until February? And if it was reported before then, why wasn’t it corrected before the school year started?

The district acknowledged there was also damage done by the window air conditioning units that the school uses. The units are old, inefficient, and almost impossible to repair, said Tim Harrell, assistant superintendent for support services, who supervises the district’s facilities.

Harrell said the school’s HVAC system has been a concern for a while.

The students mentioned that often the school’s heating and air conditioning did not work at all.

Harrell said there are significant problems with the HVAC system at Goldsboro High and at other schools.

Replacements, he said, are planned this year, with full installation expected to be completed sometime this winter, with a transition expected to allow the new air conditioning to be operational in time for next spring.

The money will come from the nearly $97 million the district has received as part of state and federal coronavirus funds, which Superintendent Dr. David Lewis and Harrell said can be used to improve air quality in schools.

Harrell said the reports of problems at Goldsboro High have been on the district’s radar for years — and figured prominently in the 2018 bid for a sales tax hike, which voters rejected.

“We had a plan and knew what we needed to do,” he said.

The money was not there until the ESSER funds came along, Harrell and Lewis said.

But were there other options, other than knowingly sending students into extreme classroom conditions?

Were parents notified?

It sure doesn’t sound like it.

And something else raised eyebrows during the tour.

WCPS’ head of maintenance, Dean Bridgers, was also in attendance Friday.

He said that the work would have been accomplished earlier at Goldsboro High School had the teachers in the classrooms in question been willing to move out to allow maintenance staff to get in to do the work.

It is a common problem, he said. Teachers get their rooms set up and a routine in place and they do not want to move.

And if the work is not deemed “a health hazard,” Bridgers said, the teachers’ requests are honored.

Huh?

That brings up several more questions.

If the conditions were not severe enough in Goldsboro High for the work order to be expedited, why were the students not told that the work was not a priority right now, that they were not at risk and the district would address their concerns when the time was appropriate?

Or, if the teachers would not vacate their classrooms so work could be done, why were they not required to move?

Or, better yet, why wasn’t the work done on a teacher workday or during a break?

You know the reason. And so do we.

But Lewis said the repairs were expedited because “if the students felt that uncomfortable and that it was interfering with their ability to learn, their concerns needed to be addressed right away.”

So, we wondered, how were the students’ concerns addressed?

Did Principal Ryan Nelson or any other administrator or Central Office personnel meet with them to talk about their statements at the council meeting?

“I met with the choral director,” Nelson said. 

So, Nelson’s response, he said, was given to her because the students were members of the show choir that performed the National Anthem at the council meeting.

“I told her I was proud of the students for advocating for their building,” he said.

Why not set up a meeting with the students? 

Nelson said he maintains “an open-door policy” to ensure students can come to him to express their concerns about anything.

So, why not open a dialogue?

The students said they were asked to speak on behalf of their classmates because they were going to be at the council meeting.

Why not call an assembly and speak to the Student Body?

Why not figure out why students felt they had to go to City Council?

Why did they not feel comfortable talking to school leaders? Or if there was no action on that front, why not the Board of Education?

Those are questions district leaders need to ask — and answer.

And that includes watching carefully to see if there are repercussions for anyone who brought the concerns to the council — the students or the staff who have supported them since they did so.

There are district rules about going out of chain of command. But there shouldn’t be.

This is not about making sure WCPS has time to cover its mistakes to avoid bad publicity.

It is about making sure there is a process in place to report problems.

If that reporting system is broken, that is a serious concern, and the leadership team and the board should demand it be fixed.

As far as how the problems were reported by GHS leaders, Nelson, who has been principal at the school since 2019, said the issues documented in the pictures were reported to the district’s facilities department in the form of work orders in January.

That is standard procedure, Harrell said. Work orders are assessed, and the necessary repairs evaluated.

If they can be done in-house, they are scheduled. If not, outside companies are hired.

It’s true that the maintenance staff has faced challenges — both in maintaining personnel and getting parts and materials, Bridgers said.

His department is spread around 32 sites, with only so many hours in a day to address all the concerns.

Waiting 6 to 8 months for a boiler or chiller or hunting for an elusive part does not make that job any easier.

Sometimes, Bridgers said, the superintendent has to approve requests quickly, with suppliers offering a “10-minute window” for a purchase to be made before a part or equipment becomes unavailable.

COVID has been a problem, too — and billions in ESSER funds being handed out to school districts at the same time for the same limited list of acceptable projects has not helped, Board chairman Chris West said.

“Every LEA is after the same thing,” West said.

But that really isn’t the problem here.

The big projects, like the HVAC and roofs, sure. And the sales tax failure is a valid point in those cases.

But we refer you back to the three days of activity at the school.

If the work could be done in a couple of days, it could have been accomplished well before the student/staff concerns reached a tipping point.

We have asked to see copies of the work orders. Frankly, if the district has known about the concerns at the school since January – and cleaning up the situation could have been accomplished in a couple days of work as evidenced by the flurry of activity and the results exhibited Friday — well then, Central Office has some explaining to do.

If we do not see work orders or there is no record of complaints, then there is another question to be answered — did anyone know about the conditions at Goldsboro? And if not, why not?

Goldsboro High School has a board member who represents it, former GHS principal and longtime board member Pat Burden.

She was on the tour Friday.

But has she been to the school before that and popped her head into classrooms? Has she been a vocal advocate for the needs of the school and its students?

Her constituents will be the judge of that.

We asked about the reports of bugs, rodents and other pests.

Harrell said the district employs a pest service that visits buildings monthly.

He said school personnel report sightings of concern on a log that is kept at each building. The pest service addresses those concerns after looking at that list.

Harrell said there have been no out of the ordinary reports from Goldsboro High.

“We have not had an emergency call at Goldsboro High in the last two years,” he said.

So, are the students lying? Or is this another case of something not being reported?

We asked about the clogged toilet — the one students said has limited them to a single facility on campus for months.

We were told a plumber was called and did work in the school this past week.

So, what do we think?

There was a problem at Goldsboro High School — and it is not a bunch of teenagers overdramatizing less-than-optimal conditions or whiney teachers who were just looking for something to complain about through their students.

If there was no real concern, and the conditions were not that bad, there should have been a rush to show the community that there was nothing to be worried about.

No flurry of repairs. No tour Friday. No glowing press release.

It was clear that Rep. Bell was eager to get a look and that he knew he needed to do so immediately.

There was a reason he and Rep. Smith were not invited Tuesday afternoon.

So, we can stop pretending this was an overreaction.

But we can be honest about something else, too.

The major issues at Goldsboro High School are not unlike the challenges facing any historic building.

And we have plenty of aging school buildings in Wayne County that need attention.

That’s why there are going to be new buildings in Fremont and Rosewood.

Bell acknowledged that, even suggesting that the state “might have to get involved” in facilities in the future.

But those are the big asks — the concerns that need to continue to be brought to the County Commissioners and perhaps other municipal leaders.

Money will always be an issue. That is why now, as the county looks at a COVID-19 windfall, the money needs to be spent wisely.

The district’s superintendent acknowledges that willy nilly spending just to plug holes is not wise, that scurrying around throwing money at vendors and projects is not a responsible use of that ESSER money.

And he is dead right.

But that does not answer the concerns about basic cleanliness, clogged toilets, water pouring into hallways, peeling paint, infestations, and other challenges the students reported at their school — and why they were not addressed.

We believe those three teenagers — and board members should, too.

The district needs to keep its eyes open to make sure that conditions are acceptable and that problems are reported and dealt with.

And parents should insist they do as well.

Since the initial story published, we have heard from parents, substitute teachers and alumni who have stories of their own about the conditions they have witnessed at Goldsboro High over the last several years. Their observations jive with what the students described.

They should show up at board meetings and make sure that their concerns are addressed — just as stakeholders in other parts of the county have kept their schools’ needs on the priority list.

They should hold their school board member, county commissioner and state representatives accountable.

Fortunately for them, Goldsboro High has the district’s attention now. Keeping it requires those who care about the school and its history — and its future — to keep speaking up as they have been since the story broke.

This should not be over. And no one should be allowed to cover for those who let this situation get to this point.

This is not about dodging bad publicity and just waiting for the furor to die down.

It is about responsibility and accountability. If a ball was dropped, this is the time to make sure it does not happen again.

Reps. Bell and Smith’s prompt attention to the matter was encouraging, and they have promised to keep their eye on the situation.

Both men acknowledged the school’s importance to the community — and its history.

“When I was a student, every bit of this school was something to be proud of,” Smith said. “That is where the term Cougar Pride came from. This was the center of the community.”

Bell agreed.

“We heard you and we are here to help,” he said. “Goldsboro is an historic building, and it needs to be preserved.”

Now it’s up to the parents, alumni and administration — and, if they drop the ball, the students — to make sure it is.

We’ll certainly keep watching.