Mold, leaks, peeling paint - tour shows Norfolk schools' flaws

NORFOLK

They peered inside classrooms and bathrooms, inspected walls and ceilings, and questioned school administrators about safety concerns.

Their job, as members of a citizen advisory committee, is to review a $579.7 million plan that evaluates 55 of the school division's buildings. They also will weigh in on the study's recommendations to redraw attendance boundaries, close five schools and remodel or enlarge several others over the next 10 years.

The group of educators, parents and community leaders plans to deliver its opinions on the report to the School Board this fall. Several of the 22 committee members spent a recent day touring some of the schools.

"Being able to visit and kick the tires, if you will, is an important part of this task," said George C. Crawley, committee co-chairman and former Norfolk assistant city manager.

The trip yielded some surprises: a middle-school roof that's been leaky for more than a decade; an elementary school with peeling paint from water seepage and another with 40 percent more students than it's supposed to hold.

"There's a lot to be done," said Charlene Fleener, a committee member who is a department chairwoman at Old Dominion University's Darden College of Education. "I was surprised that things were in such poor condition."

For Karen Jones Squires, the committee's co-chairwoman, the tour highlighted the quality of the teachers and other staff members:

"What these people manage to do with what they've got is unbelievable."

Maury High School

Almost a century old, the building's thick walls make wiring for the Internet challenging and a wireless environment difficult.

Keeping track of students also can be problematic when they're trying to be elusive because numerous stairways span the school's four stories, said Assistant Principal Holly Murphy.

Committee members questioned whether the building was serving its purpose well. The plan recommends a $45 million renovation for Maury.

"I understand the historical value of the school," said Derek Vaughan, an assistant professor of secondary education at Norfolk State University. "But is it really cost-effective?"

Squires mused over the general need to balance new construction with projected enrollment. According to the report, Norfolk's student population will continue to gradually decrease through 2017.

"Talking about enrollment numbers going down," she said, "you might have this huge structure that's partially filled at the end of the day."

 Ghent School

The school is undergoing a transformation, so all students who start kindergarten there can continue through eighth grade.

Ghent draws students from around the city, but previously, some needed to return to their zoned middle schools because of space issues.

Fleener asked whether there were any challenges to housing kindergartners with eighth-graders.

"I think it's an advantage for both," said Principal Christina Boone. She added that she'd like to have a barrier to separate elementary and middle-level gym classes on rainy days, however.

Her major wish? More space.

"That's the cry at every school," Crawley said.

Larchmont Elementary School

Teachers cover their classroom walls with posters and cloth hangings where water from leaky windows peels and bubbles the paint year after year. The fight against mold and mildew is constant.

Principal Patricia Melise showed the visiting group a bathroom that she called "our dungeon."

Behind the wooden door to the girls' restroom, five steps led down to a narrow, empty corridor that ended with a tiled floor. To the right: sinks and toilets. To the left: a seemingly out-of-place double-doored exit.

"Isn't this a little bit of a fire hazard?" Fleener asked.

"Was this a bathroom to start with?" asked Laurie Chapman, a Maury parent and former teacher.

The worst flooding is in the boiler room, Melise said, guiding her group inside.

"Come look how high the water comes up," Chapman said, examining a water mark at mid-calf-level on the wall.

"That's where the smell is coming from," said Kim Johnson, president of the Norfolk Council of PTAs.

At the beginning of the tour, Squires lingered in the foyer to find her daughter in an old class picture on the wall. "I know great things go on here," she said later. "Somebody who's not had any experience here might come in and say, 'What a dump.' "

Rosemont Middle School

"Is it always this cold?" Squires asked.

"The HVAC system is inconsistent," Assistant Principal Gregory Worcester said. In one wing, teachers often complain that it's too hot, he said, and the hallways have no air conditioning.

Squires and Vaughan admired an old-fashioned brown speaker, used to broadcast announcements.

"This building has potential," Vaughan said. "I like the design of the school and how it's laid out."

Azalea Gardens Middle School

The story here is water, said Malcolm Whitehurst, the head custodian.

It seeps through the roof, particularly in the hallways. It stains walls and warps ceiling tiles, despite work that was supposed to solve the problem years ago.

"It sounds like a structural design problem," Squires said.

The gym can be heated, but cooled only with the help of three jumbo fans. Less than 24 hours after the last day of school, student graffiti decorated desks, tables and lockers. One desk lacked a leg and was propped up by a stack of books.

"I guess they work with what they have," Johnson said. "We had better stuff in the '60s."

Lake Taylor High School

The resemblance to a jail - boxy construction, narrow windows - has not been lost on the students, said Principal Clifton Harrison.

But Lake Taylor High boasts some enviable features, such as two cafeterias, ample parking space and a basketball court that Harrison believes to be NBA-regulation size.

Squires scrutinized three side-by-side stairwells.

"Those staircases are really narrow," she said. "Is there a traffic flow issue?"

"Can be," Harrison replied.

A few problems have cropped up, but nothing too serious, the principal said: A tiny elevator for disabled students often burns out, and the old pipes can be leaky.

"What we've been asking for for years," he confided, "is a swimming pool."

Fairlawn Elementary School

More than 500 students attend class here, but it was built for fewer than 400.

Principal Dennis Fifer said he doesn't know how exactly it happened: perhaps transfers within the district, perhaps students across the Virginia Beach border who want full-day kindergarten. It's been this way for years.

Almost all of the fourth- and fifth-graders learn in mobile classrooms, he said, and all art and music classes are held in the outside buildings.

Fifer brought the committee members to a restroom at one crook of the U-shaped building.

"Here is the only bathroom I have for everyone in this wing and 13 trailers," he said. "Going to the bathroom, we almost have to schedule it."

His audience gasped.

"It's good," Fifer said quickly. "We work it out. We don't miss a beat."

Amy Jeter, (757) 446-2730, amy.jeter@pilotonline.com