SAN DIEGO — Hot temperatures, high humidity, and no air conditioning is something that students in Rancho Bernardo have endured for most of their first week back to school, being forced to hold class outside in some cases. CBS 8’s Brian White visited the campuses of Rancho Bernardo High School and Bernardo Heights Middle School Wednesday to check on the progress being made. He found that the air conditioning system was up and running and filling classrooms with cool air for the time being at least.
“When you come in and it’s cool air, you know it’s going to be a better day,” said Principal Hans Becker of Rancho Bernardo High School.
It’s been a rough first week for students and school faculty at both schools because of the unreliable A/C system that’s over 30 years old. Parents sent us pictures showing a thermostat reading 85 degrees outside and 87 degrees inside.
“It’s really frustrating. The kids have been in classrooms that are over 85 degrees. We had ‘Back to School Night’ last night and the teachers are miserable,” said Amber Stefanick, who has a sixth-grader and a tenth-grader at each school. “It’s really frustrating when I pick my kids up and they’re talking about how they’re sweating or they’re sitting outside on the hard concrete trying to do math because it’s cooler outside than it is in the classrooms.”
CBS 8’s Brian White paid a visit to the office at the high school and sat down with Principal Hans Becker, who said the old air conditioning system has been fickle at best.
“It didn’t work at all yesterday, but it’s working today,” said Principal Becker. “It worked pretty good last Friday, but it quit about noon, so it’s been on and off.”
CBS 8 reached out to Poway Unified School District for comment and they replied with this statement:
“Our facilities and maintenance staff have been working very hard every day to address this issue. However, the HVAC system is very old and complex, and unfortunately, after 32 years, the system is breaking down more frequently. The entire system, which serves both RBHS and BHMS, needs to be replaced and unfortunately costs millions of dollars. You may recall, in 2020, PUSD tried to pass a bond that would have addressed this issue and others like it at many of our older campuses. The bond obviously didn’t pass and the district unfortunately is one of the lowest funded districts in the State, so to raise another tens of millions of dollars to address all the aging buildings at all of our schools is a major concern.
In the meantime, we do have staff working on the system day and night. We are also looking into other options for a long term solution. Either way, the process and fix takes time and is not immediate. And even when the system starts working, it shuts down again. The situation is not ideal nor comfortable for the staff and students, but we are doing everything we can to address the issue at both of these schools.”
“What I’m hopeful for is that the district continues to take this seriously,” said Principal Becker. “The maintenance guys are out there working on it to fix it, but really, the vision of having a long-range solution for both of our campuses is what needs to be done and that’s what they’re working on.”
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