COVINGTON, Va. (WDBJ) – Tuesday, students will return to Covington Middle School for the first time since the school was closed at the end of January following a carbon monoxide leak. Teachers and other faculty returned to the building for the first time Monday for a teacher work day.
Alleghany Highlands Public Schools (AHPS) told WDBJ7 it has taken thorough steps over the last month and a half to ensure the building is safe for school.
“That desire to be thorough has been very clear from the school board. They’ve really wanted to emphasize student and staff safety and make that a very key priority here. So this process has been highly methodical, and because it had different layers with different agencies and vendors involved, that has taken time,” said AHPS Superintendent Dr. Kim Halterman.
The Covington Middle School building was cleared as safe by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management in February, but out of caution, the school division hired two private firms to conduct an air quality report and a building system inspection.
Those reports were received in the last week. In the meantime, the school division has made numerous safety improvements to the building.
“The ventilation system, the oven piece, that we wanted to repair has been repaired. That kitchen equipment that was not functioning the way we wanted it to has been removed. There’s been a deep cleaning of the building as an additional precaution. We also realize it’s cold and flu season, so we wanted to do that and help our building be fresh and clean. We have also repaired our third-floor air handler; that’s a unit that’s on the roof and it’s repaired and fully functional,” said Halterman.
Carbon monoxide detectors have also been installed throughout the school. In the aftermath of the leak, it was discovered that the school had no working CO2 detectors. The school division said it is continuing to look into how that happened.
“We haven’t been able to figure out why a carbon monoxide detector that was in the building was unplugged. There was one in the building, and it was unplugged shortly after the incident; it may have been unplugged to add a new carbon monoxide detector. We’re going to try to figure that out to make sure that’s indeed the case,” said Halterman. “The important thing is we have lots of carbon monoxide detectors all over our building now. So I hope that provides not only additional safety, but additional comfort, too.”
Halterman said there are working CO2 detectors in all other schools in the county.
“We want to reassure the public that there are a large number of carbon monoxide detectors in Alleghany Highlands Public Schools. There were quite a number before the incident, but we wanted to make sure we added more to those,” she said.
Virginia state law requires all schools to have working carbon monoxide detectors. Halterman said the school division has cooperated with all state agencies since the leak took place.
With students having done virtual learning for the last month and a half, Halterman said the school division is prepared to add additional instructional time for Covington Middle School as needed.
“Throughout the school year, our instructional team keeps a close eye on those hours and minutes that are required for in-person instruction. So, we are currently tracking those and analyzing that situation as closely as we can. We are awaiting some additional guidance in that area, but we are prepared to add additional instruction time as necessary if that should become a need,” she said.
Halterman said the primary analysis of the leak incident is now complete, but the school division will continue to review everything that happened.
“We will always continue to learn and grow from any incident or other concern that we face. So we’ll be continuing our follow-up in the coming months to make sure we’ve been just as thorough as we possibly can be,” she said.
Halterman said the school division is excited to have students back in the building.
“Our partners, our school board, our administration have really been through something difficult together, but we’ve navigated it responsibly and we really appreciate everyone’s involvement in that and want to express gratitude to our community,” she said.
Those interested in viewing the full Air Quality Report and Building System Inspection for Covington Middle School can find the full reports on the CMS incident website.
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