The social media postfrom D.C. Public Schools urged parents to bundle up their children to stay warm on the way to and from school.
At the same time, some principals were issuing similar warnings — with one crucial difference: Because heating systems had failed at their schools, students needed to keep wearing winter coats, hats, boots and gloves inside classrooms, too.
Franklin Díaz said he did not want to send his 11-year-old daughter to MacFarland Middle School last Thursday and Friday after the school warned families of “grim” conditions and temperatures in the 40s and 50s. But worried about the legal consequences of unexcused absences, he sent her anyway. Díaz, 33, made sure she wore a sweater and winter coat — which she kept on all day.
When she got home, the sixth-grader gave her father a concise assessment. “It was cold,” she said.
Díaz’s daughter was among hundreds of students across the District who returned to school after the Jan. 25 winter storm only to endure cold classrooms and cafeterias with little or no heat, even as city officials touted a swift reopening. At least 10 of DCPS’s 117 schools experienced HVAC failures affecting classrooms or entire buildings, according to school leaders, parents and internal communications reviewed by The Washington Post — double the number city leaders initially acknowledged.
“We got our government open in one day,” Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said Friday at a news conference. “We got our … schools open in two days.”
Bowser then called to the lectern Delano Hunter, director of the Department of General Services, which is responsible for maintaining DCPS buildings. Hunter described the heating problems as limited to four or five schools while bragging about his department’s performance.
“I am proud to report we have not had to close any schools,” Hunter said.
But D.C. Council member Janeese Lewis George (Ward 4), who chairs the committee overseeing city facilities, said that portrayal did not reflect what families and teachers were experiencing — or what she saw while visiting schools. At Whittier Elementary School, she said, students wore coats inside classrooms that measured 51 degrees.
“Everybody keeps saying conditions are great and schools are ready,” Lewis George, who is running for mayor this year, said. “But on the ground, the lived experience of people right now has been much different from what’s been communicated.”
She added: “I think most of the city just felt gaslit.”
The Department of General Services acknowledged heating problems at the 10 schools identified by The Post but said it had resolved several issues and was working on the rest. The agency said crews restored HVAC systems, deployed temporary fixes such as industrial-strength hanging heaters and portable space heaters, and worked with the school system to move students out of the coldest rooms when possible.
Crews also worked over the weekend to clear ice that damaged HVAC systems on school roofs and to install temporary backups in rooms where central heating could not be restored. Temperatures rose into the 60s and 70s in many spaces, officials said.
“DGS will continue to monitor conditions around-the-clock, deploy contingency solutions where necessary, and advance permanent repairs to ensure school buildings remain safe and functional for students and staff,” the department said in an email.
The heating failures deepened frustration among some parents and educators already critical of Bowser’s decision to reopen schools — even as many other districts in the region remained closed — arguing the city moved too quickly while roads, sidewalks and school facilities remained unsafe. For many families, the cold classrooms turned an already-stressful return into an endurance test.
The problems affected schools across the city. At Peabody Elementary School in Northeast Washington, teachers reported prekindergarten classrooms between 56 and 60 degrees, according to the Washington Teachers Union. At Malcolm X Elementary School in Southeast Washington, which suffered a building-wide heating outage, educators said the cold hurt students’ focus and ability to learn.
Teachers at Thaddeus Stevens Early Learning Center, which serves about 100 pre-K students in Northwest Washington, reported heat outages on every floor after the storm. DGS said the problems are being caused by a failed condenser coil that the agency expects to replace in about two weeks — until then, crews have brought in space heaters. Still, even with heaters, teachers said 3- and 4-year-olds endured “extremely low temperatures.”
MacFarland’s electrical system couldn’t handle industrial-strength hanging heaters, forcing students to endure cold classrooms, Lewis George said. DGS said contingency heaters were expected to be installed before students return Monday.
That isn’t good enough, Lewis George said, noting students had already returned to class Thursday and Friday.
“We have students who are in classrooms that are below 55 [degrees] … and were being told to put coats on,” she said, “and a heater in a classroom as a contingency does not mean that a solution has been found.”
Other snowstorm-related problems compounded the heating issues. Schools reopened as many neighborhoods remained buried in snow and ice, making commutes slow and hazardous.
Relief from the weather appeared unlikely. National Weather Service forecasters predicted highs near freezing and overnight lows in the teens and 20s in the coming days, with a chance of snow Wednesday.
Díaz said he wants his daughter in school, learning and with her friends — but not at any cost.
“Not to go to school to be freezing,” he said.
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