More than one-third of Wake’s 200 schools had a documented heating or air conditioning maintenance issue at the time of their most recent health inspection, a WRAL News investigation has found. Some of the schools had just a handful of rooms that were too cold or too hot, and some schools had entire wings with outages. Some parents said 80 degrees was common in some classrooms at their schools.
The Wake County Public School System’s HVAC issues extend beyond extreme-weather days. Some issues were observed on days that had mild weather, in addition to the days that had more extreme temperatures.
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They’re among the findings of a WRAL News review of HVAC problems at each school’s most recent inspection report. The reports detail broken or malfunctioning HVAC systems, as well as widespread plumbing failures and leaks in ceilings and roofs in the majority of schools. Many leaks were caused by plumbing and HVAC failures.
The HVAC issues are more than just a maintenance issue. They can affect learning, researchers say. A 2018 Harvard study found that higher outside temperatures can reduce learning, and a 2015 Harvard study found that proper air conditioning can mitigate most, but not all, of those effects. Class sizes can also make a difference; crowded rooms tend to be hotter.
HVAC problems on extreme-temperature days have led to early dismissals at dozens of schools across the county in recent years. District leaders say HVAC repairs account for one-quarter of the $800 million backlog in maintenance that the district is struggling to address.
Enloe Magnet High School’s classrooms were so hot last summer that volunteers held a drive for more fans to cool the place down.
“We suffer with HVAC problems, and deferred maintenance is a huge issue,” said Rebecca Snowden, president of the school’s association for parents, teachers and students. “We have plumbing concerns. We have basic aesthetic concerns, and we just have quality of life concerns at the school.”
The worst one? “HVAC is priority No. 1,” Snowden said. “I have so much respect for our teachers and staff, but it’s hard to do challenging coursework in an 80-degree classroom.”
During Enloe’s most recent health inspection, which was conducted on Feb. 14, 2025, inspectors noted the HVAC system wasn’t functional in rooms along two hallways, as well as another classroom, the dance studio and a copy room. The high temperature in Raleigh that day was 48 degrees Fahrenheit, with a low of 39.
An HVAC failure is considered a high-priority issue for repair, Superintendent Robert Taylor told WRAL News. It requires immediate response.
But even a true HVAC repair might take quite a bit of time, depending on the problem, he said. A part replacement for a chiller might end up being only a temporary fix, and a total replacement of the chiller could end up being the permanent fix. A full replacement of the entire unit would take longer.
“Some permanent fixes can be 18 months, particularly if you’re talking about a big chiller unit that’s at a high school,” Taylor said. Those types of chillers usually have to be customized to serve the particular building.
The district puts schools on lists for major equipment replacements, based on age and conditions. But sometimes an HVAC system can fail or begin to function poorly before that time. The lengthy list of deferred maintenance also means a significant amount of equipment is operating past its normal useful life. Inefficient or strained systems often suck more energy, costing more to operate.
In its ongoing facilities planning, the school system plans to spend a greater share of its infrastructure dollars on renovations and repairs than in the past, when greater shares were devoted to new schools and new land purchases. That is in part because of the need for repairs and in part because enrollment growth has slowed in the county, reducing the need for new schools. Enrollment has been flat for about the past decade and is expected to remain that way for several more years.
When the district was growing, the school board was focused on raising employee pay and hiring more educational and support staff, rather than hiring more maintenance staff to take care of the growing number of schools.
The inspections reviewed by WRAL News don’t include follow-ups to determine whether issues were later resolved, because those aren’t required under state law.
Largely, when HVAC issues were found, they were found in a handful of school rooms here and there, WRAL found. More rarely, they were found in entire building wings or floors. No inspections found issues for an entire school building, though nearly all inspections were routine and not prompted by an outage.
Those smaller HVAC issues still grate on many parents and teachers.
Michael Coe, a parent at Durant Road Elementary, described a history of HVAC issues within the trailers at the Raleigh school, which was built in the early 1990s.
Trailers present a whole host of issues in Wake County. Trailer classrooms at numerous schools also had poorly functioning or nonfunctioning HVAC systems, according to recent inspection reports. The district has said that many trailers are past their typical useful life. The district is actively trying to get rid of trailer classrooms, but crowding at some schools makes them necessary.
The air conditioning doesn’t work in all of Durant’s trailers, parents and teachers told WRAL. Teachers are moved around to trailers where the air conditioning is working. Some parents told WRAL that teachers have tried to buy their own wall air conditioners for their trailers.
Durant Road Elementary’s most recent health inspection, conducted Sept. 18, 2025, didn’t note HVAC issues on that day, which featured a low of about 59 degrees and a high of 85 degrees. The school was instead mostly faulted for numerous plumbing issues and roof and ceiling leaks.
But air conditioning in the main building often goes out, parents and teachers at the school told WRAL News. And the temperatures reach levels that can make instruction less effective.
A review of research by Pennsylvania State University suggests temperatures between 68 degrees and 74 degrees for effective learning in reading and math. It also recommends that school-level staff be able to set temperatures for their own classrooms or blocks of rooms.
In Wake County, thermostats are controlled by the central office — 69 degrees in the winter and 74 degrees in the warmer months.
“The HVAC system within Durant Road Elementary has many times been non-functional, where the school is 78, 80 degrees, plus or minus,” Coe said. “And the students have to sort of deal with that.”
