CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – Horry County school leaders say in addition to five new schools in the district, the district also needs to make more than $210 million dollars in repairs.
Whittemore Park Middle School in Conway is one of the schools needing the most repairs, because of an air quality issue.
Principal Judy Beard says parts of the school were built in the 1950’s, and she said they’ve had issues with leaks in the ceilings and the air conditioning units not working properly in some of the classrooms.
Issues she says has kept one of her teachers sick all year.
School board member Janet Graham told the District’s Facility Committee about the problems in this month’s meeting.
“There have been leaks in some of the schools, and that too leads to some of the air quality issues, and they are very adept to getting on that because when you’re talking about air quality, you know, everybody’s concerned about that,” said Graham.
She says she’s seen the problems with the A/C units first-hand.
“I happened to go in one of the classrooms, and it was a beautiful, very warm day, maybe in the 80’s outside, and the heat was on and just going full blast. That was just, it’s just unacceptable,” said Graham.
The faulty air conditioning, leaks, narrow hallways, and nearly 70-year-old classrooms are just some of the issues, but Whittemore Park isn’t the only one.
“South Conway was built in 1955, and it has outlived its useful life,” said Graham.
Graham says Conway High School also needs repairs, but with five other schools being built in the district, things will take time.
“In a district of this size, we have to look at spreading those funds around and doing the most good and in the most places that we can,” said Graham.
Graham says the air quality issues are number one, and crews are already working to fix those problems.
Whittemore Park Middle, South Conway Elementary, nor Conway High School are included in the 5 new schools coming to Horry County.
News13 reached out to Horry County Schools Facilities Director Mark Wolfe to see if there are plans for any of them for the future, but at the time of this article, we hadn’t heard back.
