Wake County Public School System has posted a request for qualifications seeking an engineering firm to assess the HVAC systems at 100 of its campuses, roughly half the district, as officials try to get ahead of a maintenance crisis that has sent students home early and left classrooms stifling or stuffy for years. The district has prioritized schools with older systems or the highest number of documented HVAC issues for this first round of inspections.
Veronica Hill, the district's new chief of facilities and operations, spoke with WRAL in her first on-camera interview since taking the job two months earlier, saying the assessment follows her announcement in September that the district needed a major shift in how it approaches HVAC. According to WRAL, the district provided no list of the 100 campuses being assessed, and the engineering firm that's ultimately hired will provide recommendations for HVAC solutions once its work is complete. Hill said bringing in outside help would give current maintenance staff the capacity to focus on day-to-day issues and ongoing projects while a firm with more advanced technology and an independent perspective digs into the district's broader strategy.
Years of Early Dismissals and Sweaty Classrooms
The scope of the problem is not new to Wake County families. Dozens of schools have closed early over the years when HVAC systems failed on extremely hot or cold days, and students and teachers have complained about uncomfortable conditions even when the weather outside isn't especially severe, per the same WRAL report. The district's HVAC troubles stem partly from insufficient maintenance of units, including some newer systems, and officials have acknowledged delaying more than $200 million in maintenance over the years.
An earlier WRAL analysis of health inspection records found that more than one-third of Wake County's 200 schools had a documented heating or air-conditioning maintenance issue during their most recent inspection, according to WRAL. Separately, more than one-third of Wake County's 199 schools lost at least one instructional day to HVAC issues in the two years preceding June 2025, the News & Observer reported. At Enloe Magnet High School, a Feb. 14, 2025 health inspection found the HVAC system was not functional in rooms along two hallways, plus another classroom, the dance studio and a copy room. The district's inspections have typically turned up problems in individual rooms rather than across entire wings or floors, and no inspection found issues throughout an entire school building.
State Mandate Drives the Broader Review
The new 100-school assessment is distinct from a separate, required evaluation of all district facilities. ABC11 reported in August 2025 that a third-party firm was expected to carry out that evaluation over the following few months as part of an assessment mandated by the state Department of Public Instruction to help pin down exact repair costs, ABC11 reported. That state-level review traces back to North Carolina General Statute 115C-521, which requires long-range plans for school facility needs every five years, according to the Wake County Public School System, which notes the state released its 2025-26 Facility Needs Survey Report on May 5, 2026.
The district is also conducting a pay study to figure out what it needs to offer to compete for qualified HVAC technicians, per ABC11's reporting. That staffing gap has been stark: the district had just 20 HVAC technicians as of mid-2025, compared with an industry-guideline staffing level of at least 54, the News & Observer reported. The same report found that more than a third of Wake County's 199 schools lost at least one instructional day to HVAC issues over the two years leading up to June 2025, and that only half of the district's HVAC work orders in the 2023-24 school year were for preventive maintenance rather than emergency fixes.
A Backlog Measured in the Hundreds of Millions
The district's maintenance shortfall has been described in varying terms by different sources. WRAL reported that HVAC repairs account for one-quarter of an $800 million maintenance backlog, while the News & Observer reported in October 2024 that the district faced more than $200 million in deferred HVAC needs within a total of more than $600 million in deferred maintenance. WUNC separately reported in March 2025 that the district was facing $600 million in deferred maintenance needs overall, a figure Superintendent Robert Taylor said traces back to the Great Recession in 2008, according to WUNC. ABC11 has also reported district officials estimating the broader lifecycle-work backlog at somewhere between $600 million and $800 million.
Delays carry a real cost: WUNC reported that replacing an HVAC unit delayed for six or seven years could run about $190,000, compared with a hypothetical original cost of $140,000. Wake schools spent $45 million in the past year replacing old HVAC units, more than double the previous year's spending, according to WRAL's reporting, and about two dozen schools that have dismissed early are now getting new equipment. ABC11 has reported that officials discussed heating and cooling replacement projects at nearly 20 schools, including full HVAC replacements planned for Holly Springs Elementary, Joyner Elementary, Wake Field Middle School and Willow Springs Elementary.
Slow Fixes, Staggered Timeline
Hill said additional schools beyond the initial 100 could be assessed as needed, with the remainder evaluated on a structured, staggered schedule once they approach the same threshold used to select the first group. Even once problems are identified, fixes aren't instant. Taylor has said some permanent repairs, particularly for a large high-school chiller, can take up to 18 months, per WRAL's reporting. The district has made some headway on big-ticket replacements, with crews replacing 21 chillers so far this fiscal year and 160 chillers replaced over the previous decade, according to ABC11.
The assessment job itself is expected to cost between $500,000 and $1 million, according to the district. One parent told ABC11 that a classroom at Hunter Magnet Elementary was consistently warm and humid during the previous school year, calling it an issue in an old building rather than a minor inconvenience. The district has said it plans to increase maintenance spending and reclassify maintenance positions to pay staff more as part of its longer-term response.
