Page High parents, students urge faster repairs after repeated HVAC failures and safety concerns

Dozens of Page High School students, parents and alumni told the Guilford County Board of Education at its January meeting that persistent heating, ventilation and air-conditioning failures, crowding and safety issues have forced repeated remote-learning days and left families scrambling.

The comments came during the board’s public-comment period, where Page student body president Cam Cooper described the school’s conditions and asked the board to “invest in us, invest in our future.” Cooper said Page’s auditorium is condemned, classrooms suffer extreme temperature swings, bathrooms lack privacy, the cafeteria is overcrowded for the student population and the football locker room floods when it rains.

Why it matters: speakers said the facilities problems are not only an inconvenience but affect attendance, students’ learning and safety — especially for the school’s high share of economically disadvantaged students.

Parents and community members offered specific examples and numbers during the public-comment block. Julie Pirtle, who identified herself as a parent, said county contractors were still working to restore proper heating and airflow and that "Paige has lost 5 school days this year, an entire week due to these neglected and overlooked systems." Jesse Poole, who identified himself as a Page parent, told the board his son had missed multiple days and said, “They’ve lost 3 days this winter to HVAC issues,” and that some students “have been in school 1 day this calendar year so far.”

Adam Duggan, a Page graduate and parent, praised past bond investments but urged the board to reconsider how the district uses bond dollars. Duggan said the facility study being used to decide projects is static and dated (2019) and argued that value-engineering could build more schools if per-square-foot costs were reduced. He told the board the district risks losing community trust unless spending priorities are reassessed.

Several speakers raised money-allocation concerns tied to the district’s deferred-maintenance and bond spending. Adam Duggan said District 3 was receiving a far larger share of new-school funding than District 5, which includes Page; Duggan said, “District 3 is receiving 28% of the funding for new schools. District 5 where Page resides is receiving 5%.” He framed that as an equity question tied to how the bond program's priorities were set in 2019.

Parent and activist Katie Poole pointed to staffing and maintenance shortfalls in central budgets: "Of your $967,000,000 annual budget, only 300k is allocated to HVAC technicians," she said, arguing that the district cannot sustain effective preventative maintenance with so few in-house technicians. Several speakers urged the board to consider hiring asset managers, to adopt trade-specific advisory committees made up of local professionals, and to revisit the district’s facilities master plan.

Board and staff responses were largely conciliatory and procedural. Superintendent Dr. Whitney Oakley and other staff acknowledged the Page community’s concerns and described work already scheduled: district staff said Duke Energy has been scheduled to upgrade exterior lighting poles (from sodium to LED) at Page but that Duke crews have been delayed by storm-response work. The superintendent and other board members said they would follow up with district staff and county partners to prioritize repairs and safety work.

What was not decided: the meeting recorded no formal vote specific to Page funding or immediate reallocation of bond dollars. Speakers urged the board and community to press county and state funding partners and to remain engaged in follow-up conversations.

Ending: Board members thanked the Page delegation for attending and urged continued dialogue; several board members said they would consider revisiting the facility study and funding priorities to address urgent building-system failures affecting student access to in-person instruction.