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Parent tells board of repeated communication failures after heating problems at Springfield Elementary
Summary
A parent told the Page County School Board she has lost trust in school administrators after her nonspeaking child was exposed to repeated heating failures; she said staff did not notify parents and that social media drew an official reply only after she posted publicly.
A parent addressed the Page County School Board on Jan. 23 to describe what she said were repeated communication failures by school administrators after a heating unit at Springfield Elementary stopped working.
The parent said two incidents left her nonspeaking youngest child cold enough to develop a fever and that school officials did not notify families or respond to her email requests. “He sat in front of a broken unit on his carpet square until his body was so cold, he started to run a fever. Not once, but twice,” the parent said. She added that an official school statement posted on social media contradicted what she said she had been told privately.
The parent said she has provided the board with a timeline of events and asked members to “take notice and take action,” saying she had lost trust in the administrators named in the timeline. She also said her remarks were not intended to criticize classroom teachers, and that she respects their work.
Board members did not respond to the speaker during the comment period, consistent with the board’s public-comment protocol read aloud before remarks. The board’s rules, which were read to the public at the meeting, state that members do not respond to public comment during the meeting and that speakers have three minutes at the podium.
The speaker asked the board to note her timeline and pursue transparency and “ethical leadership.” No formal action was taken by the board during the meeting in direct response to this public comment. The superintendent’s office and building administrators were on the meeting agenda later for other items; the parent requested follow-up in her remarks.
The board’s public-comment rules that were read before the speaker said the board will not hear public comment that would disclose confidential individual student matters.
The board did not discuss this specific complaint during the rest of the meeting, and no staff response to the speaker was recorded on the publicly posted audio/transcript of the session.
