Covington Middle School returned to in-classroom instruction three weeks ago, but despite some early positive results, air quality questions remain at the facility that houses more than 500 students between the fifth and eighth grades.
And the low level of trust among parents, teachers and the Alleghany Highlands Public Schools was again evident following the discovery of another unidentified odor in part of the building.
The school district returned to investigation mode on Monday, when the strange smell was detected on the building’s third floor, the same location of the original problem on Jan. 31, which led to CMS being closed for nearly six weeks.
Late that morning, CMS parents received a pre-recorded call from Principal Karen Staunton. According to reports from multiple media outlets in Southwest Virginia, Staunton said on the message that the odor was on the third floor of the building. After consulting with other school officials, as well as several city of Covington officials, including emergency manager and chief of police Chris Smith, there was no reason to believe that students were in danger, though as a precaution, students using those third-floor classrooms were relocated to other parts of the building.
Many who received the call were not as confident. AHPS officials acknowledged Tuesday night that middle school attendance in the afternoon noticeably dropped as many children were pulled out by their parents. The trend continued on Tuesday, as the district called the absentee rate “significantly higher than usual.” The school did not provide numbers.
The Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts also confirmed that medical professionals in the Highlands area were visited by patients saying they were ill as a result of being in the school.
“We expect to receive any resulting healthcare reports in coming days,” spokesperson Christie Wills said. “But we have not learned of anyone requiring treatment from the situation.”
This is not the trend that school officials, who had reported strong attendance numbers in the first days back in the building, wanted. An emergency school board meeting was held late Monday night, all of it in closed session as they sought legal advice from their attorney, but no board members or Superintendent Kim Halterman have granted interview requests since.
The school district has continued to update its dedicated page to the CMS situation, with all significant moments through April 1 listed on the site.
While this is the most significant incident since Covington Middle School reopened, there were many other signs prior to the third-floor episode that the relationship among all interested parties is still in need of repair.
Would all of those new carbon monoxide monitors the district had installed work? There were skeptics, which became obvious when some students showed up after the school’s reopening with their own personal detectors.
And when one of them went off, school officials, as well as Covington emergency personnel, quickly responded. That alarm turned out to be a false one.
“I was advised that the detector was being kept in his backpack,” said Chief Smith, who was joined by a Covington firefighter. “These [portable] devices detect other things in the air, too, like the amount of oxygen. So if you stick one where it’s limiting [air circulation,] this is what they can do.”
