Speeding up repairs at Raleigh middle school could push back projects at other schools

A Raleigh middle school plagued by sewage, odor and heating and cooling issues could get faster relief, but at the cost of delaying other Wake County school construction projects.

The school system was moved to act after families at West Millbrook Middle School pleaded to the school board last week to speed up $74 million in planned renovations that aren't scheduled to begin until 2021 and be finished until 2023. School facilities staff said Wednesday that the work could be sped up by a year if money was taken by delaying other new schools or major renovation projects.

School board members asked for more information before they recommended any changes to the building program. But the clear message from board members was that making West Millbrook families wait until 2023 for all the problems to be addressed would not be acceptable.

“Every day can’t be like it is right now," said school board member Roxie Cash. "It may not be every day, but a whole lot more than what I’d want my child to go through.”

West Millbrook opened in 1976 at the corner of Strickland and Falls of Neuse roads in Raleigh. As early as 2008, West Millbrook was the top-ranked school on the district's list for a major renovation.

But West Millbrook's renovations have been pushed back multiple times. The result, families said last week, are problems such as how classes are periodically relocated when sewage comes up from the hallway drains.

School board members also were told about problems such as how one building has a persistent urine odor that gives people headaches and how the heating and cooling systems in some buildings don't work right.

Parents who attended Wednesday's facilities committee meeting said school was nearly canceled that day until last-minute repairs were made to fix a water leak that had left the campus with no water. They also said that the building with the strong urine odor had to be evacuated when it flooded Wednesday afternoon.

"It's a shame that it has to be one or the other," Jocelyn McGuinness-Hickey, a West Millbrook parent, said in an interview. "But I hope they will take into consideration that West Millbrook was first on the list in 2008. We've been bumped several times, and it's our turn."

School facilities staff toured West Millbrook after the parents complained. They said the sewage issue isn't a daily problem and blamed it on students flushing things down the toilet that shouldn't be flushed.

Administrators also said they couldn't detect the urine odor that families had reported. But Joe Desormeaux, assistant superintendent for facilities, said they weren't doubting what the families were seeing and experiencing.

"There is no doubt about what’s going on there and the impact it is having on learning," Desormeaux told school board members.

Desormeaux presented three options: leave the project on its current schedule, leave the project on the current schedule but make major interim repairs or accelerate the work a year by delaying other projects.

Desormeaux said they'd have to be careful about what projects are delayed because it could impact more than one school. Wake often relocates students to newly opening schools so they can evacuate the campus for a major renovation.

If a new school is delayed, Desormeaux said they might need to push back one or two of the new high schools.

If it comes down to a choice, school board member Christine Kushner said she'd prefer to push back a new school. Kushner said she wouldn't want to put any families in the same situation as West Millbrook in waiting longer for needed renovations.

School board member Kathy Hartenstine said that the district needs to push up West Millbrook's project because it also affects several other schools in the area. She said some families are leaving elementary schools for charter schools and private schools because of West Millbrook's problems.

“At the end of second grade, they’re applying to whatever they can get into so they can be sure of the fact they won't have to go to West Millbrook because of the physical condition of the building," Hartenstine said. "From West Millbrook, there are seven private and charter schools within two miles.”

This story was originally published April 18, 2018 at 6:49 PM with the headline "Speeding up repairs at Raleigh middle school could push back projects at other schools."