Five Westminster School District campuses soon will see some temporary fixes to their hot classrooms following complaints from teachers and parents about unbearable high temperatures during this month’s heat wave.
The Westminster School Board voted Thursday, Sept. 8 to approve the installation of portable air conditioner units at Schroeder and Willmore elementary schools, expected by Thursday, Sept. 15. The board also unanimously approved installing temporary mini-split air conditioning units in classrooms at Clegg Elementary, Stacey Middle and Johnson Middle schools – a process that is expected to take about 13 weeks, according to district spokesman Tony Phan.
On Friday, the district released students early from school to help them avoid the crush of the mid-day heat during an extreme heat wave that has sent temperatures soaring past 100 degrees in much of the Southland.
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Most of the district’s schools do not have air conditioning but are scheduled to receive them by the summer of 2024. The cost per school ranges from $6 million to $8 million, with funding coming primarily from a ballot measure voters approved in 2016 and also from some federal COVID-19 relief funds. The five schools getting the temporary relief approved this week are at the bottom of that list, with no estimated date for when they will undergo construction that includes new air conditioning units.
Christine Hernandez, the PTA president at DeMille Elementary, told the board she supports the temporary measures but also wants to see more. The DeMille campus is being remodeled and many students are learning in air-conditioned portables, but outside, trees were taken out and there’s nowhere to hide from the scorching sun, Hernandez said Friday.
“It’s too hot to take students outside. There’s no shade,” Hernandez said. “I’m not surprised my daughter comes home with a headache or dehydrated.”
In the past week, DeMille parents brought pop-up tents to the campus so that students could stand under shade at the beginning of the day and at pick-up, she said. As campus construction continues, Hernandez said she wants district officials to look at planting more trees and installing canvas shades.
At Eastwood Elementary, parents chose to not wait. Earlier this week, they scoured home improvement stores and showed up with portable air conditioners for the classrooms that didn’t have them.
Not all schools are accepting donations, however.
At Schroeder Elementary, Principal Shannon Villanueva sent out a message saying that some parents reached out about donating the units but they should first complete a donation request to the district and get school board approval.
“The district would need to verify beforehand that the model of the unit would work with our electrical system and that it could be installed by our maintenance team,” she wrote.
One parent, who asked to not be identified, said: “It’s really disheartening that as a parent you’re offering an immediate solution and it’s being rejected.” That parent also disagreed with sending children home early from school, possibly to homes without air conditioning. “How is that a solution?”
Erika Paulsen, a parent at Eastwood Elementary, said she’s happy that PTA parents at her children’s school chose to buy portable units for the rooms lacking them. And she would like to see the school district “reimburse our PTA funds.”
“But I am glad they are doing something to help the kids out in the other schools,” Paulsen said Friday. “A temporary solution is better than nothing, and I am sure the kids appreciate it as well.”