Advertisement

Joe Henderson: Let's ask Speaker Richard Corcoran to spend some time in a sweltering classroom

 
Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, has been shifting money from public schools to charter schools. It could go to help cool sweltering classrooms, instead.
Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, has been shifting money from public schools to charter schools. It could go to help cool sweltering classrooms, instead.
Published Aug. 21, 2017

You've seen and heard the stories about how air-conditioning breakdowns created sweltering conditions in many Hillsborough County public schools. It is a sweaty, stinking, ongoing mess, and there is no quick fix.

I listened as Superintendent Jeff Eakins explained all that at a news briefing on Wednesday. If it sounds like we've heard all this before, well, we have — much of it, anyway. Schools had the same issue last year. This just in: It gets hot in Florida every August.

The nutshell version is that the bulk of Hillsborough's more than 230 public schools are older buildings with cooling units that have reached the end of their usefulness. Your Florida Legislature keeps funneling public school dollars into private charter schools, so money to fix or replace failing systems is disappearing.

Fun fact: Hillsborough schools receive $145 million less than they did seven years ago from a state fund that, among other things, helps pay for routine maintenance. Thank your Legislature for that.

So, what to do — besides inviting Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran to spend a few days in a classroom where the temperature reaches the mid-80s or higher? Corcoran, remember, is Tallahassee's No. 1 fan of charter schools and if you want to point a finger dripping with perspiration at the No. 1 culprit in this caper, he's your guy.

For now, though, schools will have to make do with what they have, so here's a thought worth exploring.

The air units in each school are centrally controlled by the district. To save money on weekends and holiday breaks, it is standard practice to push the thermostat as high as 82 degrees for buildings that won't be used during that time. Officials say the idea is to control humidity more than temperature.

The central thermostat is set to a timer that begins lowering temperatures throughout the district schools to a tolerable level in time for classes to resume on Monday.

That's the theory, anyway.

But with these large, complex cooling systems getting old and breaking down, teachers and students in many schools tell tales of reporting to class on Monday in rooms that feel like the inside of a broiler oven.

It can take up to 48 hours for the over-stressed tech staff to fix the problem. That's a long time to be taking calculus classes in the equivalent of the sauna at your local gym. That might give you an idea what it's like sometimes.

It's worth exploring whether the county's long-time weekend policy is contributing to the breakdowns by making aging air units work harder than they're capable. Board member April Griffin has been doing that — asking whether it's wise to raise thermostats on the weekend.

"From what I'm gathering, it's not a good practice," she said. "It's not only unacceptably hot in many of our school buildings, but the high temperatures contribute to mold, sick buildings, and all that."

Spend your days with Hayes

Spend your days with Hayes

Subscribe to our free Stephinitely newsletter

Columnist Stephanie Hayes will share thoughts, feelings and funny business with you every Monday.

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Explore all your options

District maintenance general manager Robert Wegmann said he doesn't believe the practice causes the breakdowns, but added, "I'd be happy to discuss it."

So, let's discuss.

Maybe lowering the weekend threshold just a bit – say, from 82 degrees to 78 – could reduce the wear on the large air units and buy the district some much-needed time to get them replaced.

"Is that on the table? Yes," chief operating officer Christopher Farkas said. "We're going to talk to engineers about that and see if it would help."

Changing the weekend practice might be more of a Band-Aid than a permanent solution, but anything would help right now because the problem already occupies an outsized amount of time for the district maintenance staff.

And, yeah, it should be obvious that conducting classes in sweatboxes is bad for students, bad for teachers, and ultimately sends a really bad message about the kind of public school system we have.

That's not cool.