SAN DIEGO — The Poway Unified School District addressed the lack of working air conditioning units at a school board meeting Thursday night.
Board members voted unanimously to set aside $10 million from the district’s general funds reserve to repair the air conditioning units at Rancho Bernardo High School and Bernardo Heights Middle School.
Parents and students addressed the recent challenges to the AC units that have led to shorter school days during the recent excessive heat. The district’s vote does mean relief is on the way, but it probably won’t come this school year.
The vote comes after multiple parents and students voiced their concerns over the effects of the recent heat wave and lack of working AC units.
“It’s just disappointing because this system is 32 years old so it just seems that this should’ve been budgeted. It’s been said that it was a surprise that the system broke, but I’m not sure how that can be with a 32-year-old system," said Jill Kendro, parent.
“We need to have a campus that has functional air conditioning. We need to have a campus that doesn’t still use decades old portable classrooms," one student told the board members.
"Not having a comfortable learning environment has shorten instructional time and inconvenience both staff and students," added another student.
Kendro says the district should have made improvements to the 32-year-old cooling system years ago and say she feels like the district failed to properly set aside funds.
"There’s a lot of parents that are just wondering what is happening at our school district that we can’t provide basic, functioning AC for our students," added Kendro.
Board members addressed claims of mismanagement of funds, and said the district carefully set aside $14M to fix poor drainage and irrigation systems that led to mold inside the classrooms. Those repairs have been completed.
Members say the unpresented heat wave took the area by surprise.
The district has so far spent about $400,000 for recent, more immediate, repairs to the units in order to get students back in the classroom.
However, they say a more long-term solution could take months if not, at least a year before a full repair could take place.
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