After facing multiple sweltering days already this school year, the Palo Alto Unified School District is looking at options to fast-track the addition of air conditioning to elementary and middle school classrooms.
The district's current plans call for minimizing disruptions to classes by adding air conditioning during the summers, which means that heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems wouldn't all be installed until summer 2026.
The school board reviewed two options at its Tuesday meeting to speed up the project by installing the heating and cooling systems during the academic year. While the timeline would be quicker, it would require teachers to temporarily move classrooms.
The first option would mildly accelerate the process by moving teachers into temporary rooms so that installation could happen during the school year. The other, more aggressive, approach would combine school year installation with a "design-build" strategy, where the district hires a contractor who can order equipment concurrently with getting the project design approved by the state.
Currently, there are long delays to receive many supplies, including a 48-week lead time to get the equipment needed for electrical upgrades that have to precede adding the heating and cooling systems at the elementary school sites, Eric Holm. director of facilities and construction, told the board.
District staff recommended adopting the faster design-build timeline. No formal vote was taken, but the three board members present at Tuesday's meeting were generally supportive of the idea. Board President Ken Dauber and board member Shounak Dharap were absent.
Vice President Jennifer DiBrienza, who was leading Tuesday's meeting in Dauber's absence, noted that wildfires further complicate matters by forcing teachers to keep their windows closed.
"Couple the air quality days with an increasing number of unbearably hot days and it just becomes necessary," DiBrienza told the Weekly.
District staff plan to bring the budget impact of these potential changes to the board at a future meeting. DiBrienza said that whether the item requires a formal vote will likely depend on the scope of the change, since the board already approved the initial plan to use bond funds to add air conditioning back in February 2021.
Currently, about 380 elementary and middle school classes don't have air conditioning, according to Holm's report to the board. Only two elementary schools have air conditioning in parts of their campuses and the middle schools have air conditioning in their libraries and some auxiliary spaces. High schools have air conditioning "across a majority of the campuses," Holm wrote.
Teachers' union president Teri Baldwin spoke at Tuesday's meeting in favor of accelerating the installation, noting that two summers have already passed since the board originally approved adding air conditioning. According to Baldwin, teachers have sent her photos of their classrooms where temperatures have hit around 96 degrees.
"When it's that hot, the kids are sitting in front of fans — it's a lot. I just really urge you to speed this up as quickly as possible, because I already feel like we're two summers behind what we could have done," Baldwin said.
Adding air conditioning is already included in the plans for bund-funded construction projects that are currently underway. For the other campuses, even under the accelerated timelines that Holm presented, installation wouldn't begin until next school year. DiBrienza told the Weekly that's likely because of the long wait times to get certain supplies.
Under the design-build proposal, air conditioning would be added to the vast majority of campuses by the end of the 2024-2025 school year, with final work done in the 2025-2026 year.
In the meantime, the district has purchased 400 pedestal fans to distribute to rooms without air conditioning. Ceiling fans were also installed in the two-story classrooms at Ohlone, Duveneck and Fairmeadow elementary schools last summer, according to Holm's report, which described those rooms as the hottest in the district. Administrators are considering the potential to install ceiling fans in more rooms. Another option is to add window film to certain south and west facing windows.
Comments
Registered user
Crescent Park
on Oct 12, 2022 at 1:55 pm
Registered user
on Oct 12, 2022 at 1:55 pm
The classrooms are so hot for these kids! It’s too bad that back when Duveneck was being remodeled, and parents were asking for a/c to be installed and at a bare minimum, get the ducts installed so in the future a/c could be installed, the answer was a flat no. So here we are having to retrofit to install a/c.
Registered user
another community
on Oct 13, 2022 at 9:44 am
Registered user
on Oct 13, 2022 at 9:44 am
As a footnote: Remember, schools such as Greene were basically shuttered save for PAUSD+ and supporting staff. That is empty for one year (March 2020 to March 2021). What a great time to do a walk-through to check for current problems, and begin anticipating needs for the upcoming construction projects.
If that was done, the rotten tree that could have come down on people would have been detected and cut down, the trees in Hugh Center would have been trimmed, heating units inspected for structural integrity, and faulty units fixed before the onset of normal instruction. This may seem trivial, but two locked and covered vending machines at Greene were left plugged in and stocked for a whole year while the school was closed. Why? One must assume negligence or laziness, or both.
Registered user
another community
on Oct 14, 2022 at 8:17 am
Registered user
on Oct 14, 2022 at 8:17 am
A few years back I did a public records search regarding air conditioning at Greene. My goal was to get insights into why air conditioning was installed in the front office, and the library, but not to adjoining or adjacent classrooms. I mistakenly assumed that meeting minutes, other documents, or e-mails would shed light on this decision. However, I found nothing regarding the exclusion of classrooms.
At a subsequent board meeting Mr. Austin and the board basically laughed off teachers and parents regarding their air conditioning concerns. Mr. Austin, with his usual disdain, basically said that the boardroom was not air conditioned, so what is the problem? Well, he has a problem now.
The fact is that air could and should have been installed years ago. In addition, all air circulation other than fans and windows is controlled by the district. That leads to heat coming on too late, and cool air coming on too early. Last year, the unit in my room broke. A facing that weighs nearly 50 pounds just fell off and almost struck a student sitting nearby. In addition, the unoccupied office next door was regularly cranking heat all day long no matter the weather conditions. It made for a nice sauna room for sure, but clearly there is an issue when it comes to monitoring and maintenance.
One hopes that someone competent will oversee the upcoming air conditioning install, and that the investment receives proper care and maintenance over time. 25 Churchill’s record along these lines is dubious at best when it comes to classrooms.
Registered user
Adobe-Meadow
on Oct 14, 2022 at 8:20 am
Registered user
on Oct 14, 2022 at 8:20 am
Growing up during the 1950-60s we never had air conditioning at school.
Kids today are getting too soft.
Registered user
another community
on Oct 14, 2022 at 11:18 am
Registered user
on Oct 14, 2022 at 11:18 am
To Ms. Walters:
Kids may be too soft, but the fact is that teaching and learning are less effective in a 96 degree plus, crowded classroom. If kids are soft, then the adults that deemed that administrative offices needed air conditioning yet classrooms did not are even softer.
Registered user
another community
on Oct 14, 2022 at 12:05 pm
Registered user
on Oct 14, 2022 at 12:05 pm
@Lucille -- global warming makes indoor spaces uninhabitable during summer. Or haven't you noticed? May I ask if you stayed in your home here during the entire sweltering heat wave we had in September? Without A/C? With nothing but room temperature lemonade to drink because the power was unreliable? Do tell. You might know something the rest of us don't.
Registered user
Barron Park
on Oct 15, 2022 at 2:06 pm
Registered user
on Oct 15, 2022 at 2:06 pm
Why is every discomfiture and natural disaster being attributed to global warming and climate change?
Variations in global temperatures have fluctuated over the the past 10 million years and there were no cars or coal-burning back then.
The dinosaurs perished because temperatures got too cold...not too hot.
Registered user
Barron Park
on Oct 15, 2022 at 2:17 pm
Registered user
on Oct 15, 2022 at 2:17 pm
I went to grade school in Arizona where the autumn/spring/summer heat can easily reach 105+ sans any luxury of AC.
It rarely ever gets that hot here in the SF midpeninsula.
Kids...toughen up and learn to adjust.
Chances are your parents did.
Registered user
another community
on Oct 16, 2022 at 7:53 am
Registered user
on Oct 16, 2022 at 7:53 am
My grandmother once hit me several times with a wooden spoon after I cussed in front of her. I also had a middle school teacher that would throw chalk with extreme accuracy at any student not paying attention during his class. In today’s world, grandma would be answering to Child Protective Services and the teacher would have been fired after the first piece of chalk left his hand.
So, if you want to return to the good old days, which in many ways would be a good thing, then, at least from a facilities and infrastructure perspective, PAUSD is the place to be. In fact Mr. Austin could do himself a favor emphasizing why it is necessary to leave students and teachers back in the 20th Century in order to toughen them up. He can set an example by stripping all AC units from administrative offices, and taking out that fancy furniture that seems to get replaced annually in front offices. There are plenty of “Dragnet” era desks and furnishings in classrooms that could be used to give administrative offices that good ole fashion feel.
I’m sure most modern parents and their attorneys would be thrilled with the new “Promise” to toughen up their kids. [Portion removed.]
Ditch the Smart Boards and bring back chalkboards (and the chalk tossing teachers).
Registered user
Los Altos
on Oct 16, 2022 at 9:30 am
Registered user
on Oct 16, 2022 at 9:30 am
Kids at school dress a lot more casually today (even the teachers)...many wear shorts and t-shirts which negates the need for massive AC reconfigurations.
Registered user
Community Center
on Oct 16, 2022 at 11:52 am
Registered user
on Oct 16, 2022 at 11:52 am
Sadly this admin condescendingly brushed off parent concerns a few years ago. The fact that they now seem to claim that they're "on it", and that it was basically their idea to be helpful stewards of student comfort and safety is sad. How many families were alienated when they were rudely brushed off, only to now be presented with this "new reality" that admin has "invented" installing aircon? We need an institution that looks for win-win opportunities, not an institution that silences voices then takes a victory lap for no reason. We need to work together!!