On Wednesday afternoon, in the midst of an extreme heat wave expected to last all week, the temperature in Erik Wegener’s classroom was 89 degrees Fahrenheit.
The 16-year-old just started 11th grade on Monday at San Diego High, one of San Diego Unified’s largest campuses with about 2,400 students.
It’s the only school in the district that lacks air conditioning in every classroom, according to San Diego Unified.
About 30 students are packed into each of his classes, Erik said. He starts getting sweaty toward the end of the school day. Some of his teachers have brought in fans, but they don’t do much to help the heat, Erik said.
“It’s really hard to focus on learning,” Erik said. “It’s just so hot, and the heat is the only thing you can focus on in these situations.”
As climate change makes extreme heat an increasingly regular part of life, school leaders consider air conditioning essential to keeping students safe and healthy at school.
The vast majority of San Diego County school districts reported earlier this month that they have air conditioning in every classroom, when asked by the San Diego Union-Tribune. On Tuesday, San Diego Unified sent an email to families reporting that “all San Diego Unified schools now have air conditioning” as well as hot weather plans.
Request comes as heat wave forecast grows worse for San Diego County.
But whether that air conditioning actually works in every classroom is another matter. Some schools in the county, including San Diego High, have outdated HVAC systems that don’t produce consistent working air conditioning and are difficult to repair, and it’s not always clear exactly when or if school districts will replace those HVAC systems.
In May, San Diego Unified began a major renovation of the 140-year-old San Diego High that will put air conditioning in every classroom. The work is expected to take until 2025 and cost about $73.9 million, funded by the district’s three facilities bond measures, according to a district report.
Since 2008, San Diego Unified has successfully petitioned voters to approve three bond measures totaling $8.3 billion worth of facilities projects, including repairing and replacing outdated HVAC and air cooling systems.
With record-tying 92 degrees in forecast, SDSU will have water stations, misters available at Saturday’s game
District officials said they have been ready for years to start the work on San Diego High but had been waiting on the city to approve a new lease for the campus. The city approved the lease earlier this year, and the district said it began construction soon after that.
The district plans to replace the school’s old HVAC systems during the renovation, but for now, “older systems do not perform effectively during high-temperature, high-use periods,” wrote Samer Naji, facilities spokesperson for San Diego Unified, in an email.
Naji added that material delivery delays due to the pandemic have in turn delayed air conditioning repairs and installations.
“Our maintenance department HVAC technicians are working as diligently as they can to keep air conditioning systems running,” he said.
Blaze broke out around 2:15 p.m. near Barrett Lake Road north of state Route 94
San Diego Unified is not alone in having hot classrooms.
Poway Unified has been cutting the school day short at Rancho Bernardo High and Bernardo Heights Middle School because the schools’ outdated HVAC system doesn’t produce consistent air conditioning. Poway bought portable air conditioning units to address the issue.
It would take at least $10 million to replace the HVAC system, Poway Unified said. The district said it had tried to raise money to replace old HVAC systems with a bond measure in 2020, but voters rejected it.
“We understand these are not ideal conditions for teaching and learning for our students and staff,” Poway Unified Superintendent Marian Kim-Phelps said in a letter to parents. “While you have received regular updates from your principals, I wanted to assure you that staff and technicians have been working day and night over the past week to try to resolve the problem, but with limited success.”
Erik said he hasn’t heard anything from San Diego High or district leaders about what’s being done to cool off his classrooms.
Libraries as well as senior and recreation centers provide much needed relief for many San Diegans living without air conditioning
When asked by the Union-Tribune, San Diego Unified did not provide an estimated date by which all classrooms at San Diego High could be expected to have working air conditioning.
The district’s hot weather policy says a shorter school day would be called at schools where not all students have air conditioning and when the forecasted temperature is 95 degrees or higher, with a heat index of 103 degrees or higher.
The district’s policy outlines other measures that schools can take to minimize heat impacts, including moving instruction of key subjects like reading to earlier in the day when it is cooler, moving classes outside to shady areas, and limiting recess and physical education to less-strenuous activities.
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