HOUSTON, Texas – As temperatures soared to 102 degrees on Tuesday and Wednesday, the hottest days of the year, parents with students in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) were increasingly worried about ongoing air conditioning issues at several campuses.
T.H. Roger Elementary School shut down Wednesday when the air conditioning system broke.
Last week, KPRC 2 News reported that at least four of the district’s 247 campuses were dealing with A/C problems during the first days of the new school year. Despite the district’s assurances that they were working swiftly to resolve the issue, nearly a week later, parents are still reporting that some campuses remain without functioning A/C.
At Harvard Elementary School, a cellphone video obtained by KPRC 2 showed water leaking from an A/C unit, with trash cans placed underneath to catch the dripping water. In response, portable A/C units have now been brought in to help mitigate the situation.
Similar issues have also been reported at Love Elementary in the Heights area, where last week, the district was forced to relocate students to different areas of the school due to the heat.
Since Monday night, we’ve been asking the district for answers to three specific questions:
1 - How many schools are having A/C problems?
2 - What are the names of the schools?
3 - What are you doing about it to fix the problem?
Wednesday morning we got this answer:
“The safety and well-being of our students is our top priority. HISD has had issues with air conditioning in some classrooms because our HVAC systems are older and need frequent attention. Our teams work to quickly identify and address HVAC system issues. When an issue persists, campus leaders work to keep students and educators comfortable by moving them to buildings or classrooms with functioning HVAC systems.”
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“The district is constantly monitoring heat in our classrooms. If the temperature in the classroom increases above 78 degrees, we make a plan to move students. That’s why students at Harvard were moved, to ensure they had a comfortable learning environment,” said Alexandra Elizondo, head of HISD Communications.
Superintendent Mike Miles added during last week’s district meeting that temperature guns are being used to monitor classroom conditions.
Despite these efforts, parents remain concerned about the impact of the heat on their children’s ability to focus and learn effectively.