LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — In the wealthiest county in the country, some parents are fighting for their children to have a proper education, not through lesson plans or books but in the school itself.
Students, teachers and Park View High School parents said they are frustrated and fed up with the conditions they say are impacting learning.
Park View High School is an old school. According to information provided by a Loudoun County Public School spokesperson, it was opened in 1976.
Since then it's undergone five renovations, but none to the school itself in the last ten years. This inaction is set to change next year as a new renovation is slated to begin, which students said can't come soon enough.
On Wednesday students said water was coming up out of the floor, bringing some students' days to a halt.
"Water was coming up out of the floor and my daughter sent me the video and told me that kids are being told to just walk around it," Dawn Jewell said. "And that's not acceptable. We don't walk around a flood that's in our school, because we don't have the money to fix the problems in the richest county.”
The principal sent a letter to the high school community that said the flooding was a result of a maintenance issue involving the plumbing system, and students in certain hallways were moved to the library while alternative classrooms were found.
For some students, they said the water in the hallway was the tip of the iceberg for issues that keep mounting.
“We’re distracted by teachers trying to figure out leaking from the floor, you know, things just breaking around us," Angela Rivera, a senior at Park View High School said. “I think it’s not a good environment for education. We’re too busy focusing on what's happening around us instead of focusing on the actual academics.”
Students, and a teacher, described the school as having cracks in the tile and walls, stairs that are falling apart, and a lack of space for teachers to teach.
“Teachers don’t even have classrooms anymore, they have carts," a group of students described. "They all have carts, they just walk around with all their stuff. Every teacher just walks around with pencils, pen, papers, their laptop on their cart and they just walk it down the hallway because they’re constantly switching rooms.”
A teacher posted to Twitter about issues with the building and compared it to other schools in the county, which was retweeted by actress Hilarie Burton, a former Park View High School student.
Students said they feel like they're not treated as equally as students that attend other newer, renovated schools across the county.
“It's completely different. I mean, we show up to like one of the brand new schools like newly made schools and it's completely different, Luis Martinez, a senior at Park View High School said. "They have multiple stories. They have lights on every possible corner in the school.”
As a parent, Jewell said she knows she's paying money in taxes to fund the schools in her community, but she can't see where that money is going.
"I know the amount of money I'm paying, and I know the amount of money the rest of the county’s paying in taxes and in fees and that's not coming here,” Jewell said.
Park View High School is set to get a $42,055,000 renovation that will start in 2023.
That renovation will include new classrooms, expanding the alternative school, additional space for administrative staff, a security vestibule, storage space, and improvements to its athletic spaces, according to information provided by LCPS.
Construction for the renovation is set to take place over two years starting July 2023.
But parents and teachers worry this isn't going to fix all the issues that have mounted over the last 46 years, or be fixed soon enough.
“It's nice to say it's gonna happen but if you don't actually put the money in place and get it done when there's an emergency like water coming out of the floor, you're not really going to benefit anybody," Jewell said. “It's ridiculous. That shouldn't be what she's worried about.”