Two steam boilers need to be replaced at John B. Cary Elementary to maintain heat in the building during the winter.

The heat pumps at Henderson Middle School are in poor condition and need to be replaced.

Ten window air conditioners at George Mason Elementary are leaking and damaging the floor in the building.

This is just a tiny sample of the worn-out equipment that Richmond Public Schools needs to replace, but has no funds to pay for as opening day for the new school year looms.

In a report to the School Board last week, Assistant Superintendent Thomas E. Kranz noted that RPS needs to immediately spend about $20 million to replace worn-out air conditioning systems, $7 million to replace leaky roofs and $4.2 million on life, health and safety improvements.

But Richmond Public Schools has only $6 million to spend, $29 million less than the need.

“These aren’t things I’d like to have — these are things that I need right now,” Mr. Kranz said, to keep the buildings usable.

And that doesn’t count the heating systems, windows, plumbing and wiring that need to be replaced. The total tab to bring buildings up to snuff is considered likely to top $100 million

As the new school year approaches, the long simmering issue of school maintenance is now front and center.

While Mayor Dwight C. Jones has pushed construction of four new schools, the remaining 44 buildings that most of the 23,000 students attend have been left to fall apart.

“We’re holding things together with duct tape and bailing wire,” said Kimberly Gray, the 2nd District School Board member. “We know we’re going to have breakdowns.”

This is not a new issue.

More than 20 months ago, the School Board received a detailed engineering report on every building that recommended spending $25 million immediately and $55 million over five years.

It is not clear that the School Board put much effort into raising the alarm about the problems until now.

Mayor Jones said he and his administration never received that report, though the information was featured in a front-page story in the Free Press in January 2013.

And during the budget talks earlier this year, the School Board never indicated that it needed anything like $35 million, city officials note. Instead, the board sought a more modest

$7 million without mentioning the report.

City Council did get that report on the huge maintenance backlog. However, in 2013 and 2014, council voted instead lock up $21 million to pay for constructing a replacement school for Overby-Sheppard Elementary on North Side.

The only time the School Board mentioned that was not a good decision was in a May 8, 2013, letter. In it, board members urged the council to shift the funding from the proposed new school to maintenance.

But that letter was sent after the council had developed a finished budget and was prepared to vote. The board did not revisit the subject this spring.

Mayor Jones said Wednesday that he is ready to discuss the maintenance issues with the school system. “I want to make sure that the school system has adequate facilities.”

However, he said he also is waiting for the board and superintendent to provide a plan showing they are planning to right-size the schools.

He said that means looking at enrollment numbers and the number of students in each school and demographics.

According to his press secretary, Tammy Hawley, the mayor is questioning whether the school system needs all its current buildings. She said, for example, some of the high schools serve far fewer students than county high schools do.

Meanwhile, the mayor also wants more attention focused on the school system’s educational results. “We need to get to the point that we are not talking about roofs but about dropout rates and graduation rates and test scores.”