SAN DIEGO — San Diego High School students aren't excited about school starting back up because many of their classrooms don't have air conditioning.
"It's like they are trying to fix it but it's just not working. I don't know what the problem is," said sophomore Doriane Zubkoff.
'Difficult to focus'
The school year kicked off last week. It started as the record breaking heatwave hit San Diego County.
"I definitely have had headaches, heat exhaustion. It's been very difficult to focus in class," said sophomore Adelina Ramirez.
The school sent families an email Friday about the lack of air conditioning. The district said it created "cool zones" and set up water bottle filling stations for students.
"Water can only go so far. You might not have a heat stroke but you're still incredibly uncomfortable in that class dripping wet and it's quite a situation," said sophomore Matthew Quitoriano.
A problem that students have dealt with for years
Students said the issue has persisted for years.
"I've been at away games and tournaments where we marvel at the fact that other schools have AC," Ramirez said.
CBS 8 reached out to San Diego Unified on Sunday. The spokesperson for the district sent the following statement.
"San Diego High School is the only remaining San Diego Unified campus that is not fully equipped with air conditioning. Some of the campus is air conditioned. However, San Diego High is currently under construction on a whole site modernization set to deliver air conditioning to all classrooms and essential support spaces. Although this project was shovel-ready for several years, we were unable to start construction until a new long-term lease was approved by the City of San Diego. We started construction shortly after the City approved the lease. A groundbreaking ceremony was held at San Diego High in May 2022, you may read more about the project here.
In parts of the campus that have air conditioning, older units are set to be replaced during the ongoing site modernization, but older systems do not perform effectively during high temperature high use periods. While we were able to quickly conduct some repairs and return air conditioning to some areas, we are experiencing supply and material delivery delays associated with the ongoing COVID-19 impacts to the global economy, which have delayed air conditioning repairs and installations. Our maintenance department HVAC technicians are working as diligently as they can to keep air conditioning systems running."
San Diego High School is currently undergoing a facelift that will upgrade the 140-year-old campus.
The renovation includes classrooms, restrooms and an expanded quad area. When finished, all classrooms and essential support spaces will have air conditioning.
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