Maintenance on Springhill Lake Elementary School, a building that opened in 1966, is non-stop. Except during a pandemic when everything stopped. The lack of upkeep meant that teachers and staff were greeted by mold, missing railings and rodent infiltration, according to letters and pictures sent to the News Review by teachers and staff who work there.
The mold in the classroom and the missing railings were fixed just before the students came back, but teachers still find the physical state of the school worrisome and disheartening.
Third-grade teacher Philip McQuarrie alerted the News Review about the problems and then answered questions via email. He updated the status on April 9, noting that the building now had a nurse on staff and most of the mold problems in the classrooms were taken care of.
“I would like to emphasize that the current administration has done a fantastic job of listening and responding to concerns,” he wrote. “Ms. [Trena] Wilson, the current principal, started as principal of this school for the 2019-2020 school year and has had an impossible job. These problems predate her tenure at Springhill Lake and she and the other current administrators, to the best of my knowledge, deserve no blame for the state of the building.”
Silke Pope, a Greenbelt City Council member, is employed in the school as a para-professional, or assistant to the teacher. When Pope returned to her classroom in March she took pictures of mold-covered bins and chairs as well as discolored ceiling tiles.
“The teachers are concerned for a reason,” she said, emphasizing that the state of the building affects people’s spirits as well as health concerns with dirt and mold. “You walk into a nice building and you feel light. When the school is in bad shape, it just feels bad. I’m depressed just walking in there.”
Pope brought the issue to the city council’s attention and council wrote to Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) CEO Monica Goldson asking about Covid-19 protocols for all Greenbelt schools, but emphasized the age of the building and the difficulties facing Springhill Lake.
Goldson’s reply listed the protocols schools are using, including HVAC filters and face shields for teachers, some of which had not arrived at Springhill Lake Elementary at press time. The News Review also reached out to Principal Wilson who referred the questions to the PGCPS office of communication. The office replied with a list and timeline of repairs completed.
But the problems facing Springhill Lake Elementary go beyond the pandemic. The building and its temporary classrooms have perpetual problems, according to McQuarrie and Pope, and one of the reasons is that there are too few custodians for the 900 students in the school.
“We have a large school with many issues, and we have as few as one custodian on duty at a time. We need a full custodial staff to have a chance to keep up with the new Covid protocols, as we don’t have enough custodians to do the basic cleaning. This, as far as I know, is not the fault of the current custodial staff, but one of hiring enough people for the job,” wrote McQuarrie.
About a third of the students are expected to return to the building and McQuarrie said he is glad to see them.
“I love Springhill Lake. I simply want a building that not only now, during these difficult pandemic times, but also in a year more resembling normalcy, keeps students safe and does not interrupt their education.”