WS Chronicle

PART TWO OF A SERIES ON THE SLOW PROGRESS OF REPLACEMENT OF AGING SCHOOL 

 As mentioned in part one of the series, in 2016 Ashley Elementary was listed in the Education Bond approved by voters. But according to district leaders at the time, the bond only included funding for the design of a new school and not construction. The decision sparked a fire in advocates for Ashley and what happened just two years later added fuel to the fire.  

In the spring of 2018, after several students, staff and faculty members raised concerns about breathing and upper respiratory issues, talks about mold inside the school started to spread throughout the community. Several organizations, including the Ministers’ Conference of Winston-Salem and Vicinity and the local NAACP, held meetings regularly to discuss the issue and how to address it. Pressure from the community eventually led to the district bringing in two independent companies to test different locations in the school for the presence of hazardous mold.  

During one of those meetings at Dellabrook Presbyterian Church, the late Rev. Dr. Carlton Eversley was one of the first to bring attention to the stark contrast in how the situation at Ashley was being handled in comparison to the situation at Hanes and Lowrance Middle Schools just a few years earlier.  

“Our concern should be whether or not the school board and the senior administration have the same sense of urgency around the children at Ashley as they had around the children at Hanes/Lowrance, with the major difference between those two groups being around race and social-economic status,” said Eversley.  

In February 2015, the board of education voted 7-2 to move students from Hanes and Lowrance, which shared a campus on Indiana Avenue, after it was determined that the ground under the schools was contaminated.  

According to WS/FCS documents, sub-slab soil vapor samples were collected from 31 locations to test for containments. The chemical PCE was detected at levels exceeding screening levels in 14 samples. Those levels were compared to state targets for health risks, with only one of the 14 exceeding the target. 

Although a consultant determined that those vapors were not at significant levels and drinking water inside the school was safe – and after then Superintendent Beverly Emory said shutting down the schools wouldn’t be the best course of action – hundreds of parents called for the school to be closed.  

And a month later that’s exactly what happened.  

Hanes Magnet School, the only middle school in WS/FCS that serves highly academically gifted (HAG) students, was moved to two different places. Sixth graders were moved to Smith Farm Elementary, while the seventh and eighth graders were moved to the former Hill Middle School (now Konnoak Middle School). Lowrance Middle, which serves students with specials needs, was moved to Atkins High School. 

Pressure from the community eventually led to the district bringing in two independent companies to test different locations in Ashley Elementary to find a presence of hazardous mold. Results determined that mold was found on several HVAC units at the school. Instead of moving the students to other schools in the district, when it came time to make a decision on what to do at Ashley, which is a Title I school where all of the students receive free lunch, the board of education voted instead to replace all the HVAC units in the school.  

The fire that was ignited in 2016 had grown into a five-alarm fire by the start of the 2018-2019 school year. Just before students were scheduled to start school, a coalition of organizations and individuals came together to form Action4Ashley to advocate for the students and staff.  

In the next part of our series, we’ll take a closer look at Action4Ashley and how they’ve kept the pressure on members of the board of education, district leaders and other elected officials every step of this journey.