HOUSTON — Just two weeks into the fall semester, the frustration is boiling over for students and parents at Houston ISD schools plagued with air conditioning outages.
On Monday, an HVAC issue at Law Elementary required students to be moved to a nearby school, while an HVAC issue Wednesday at the TH Rogers school led HISD officials to cancel classes. Over the past few days, KHOU 11 has received reports from concerned parents at more than a dozen schools with potential AC issues.
What’s behind the problem? Officials with the union representing many of the district’s maintenance workers believe it’s a lack of staff.
“We don’t have employees to do the job -- we are so understaffed in every department,” said Hector Mireles, president of Texas Support Personnel Employees (TSPE) Local 1.
Speaking to KHOU 11 Friday, Mireles said the district was facing the consequences of mass layoffs in May. At the time, HISD said hundreds of maintenance workers were let go because of “tough budget decisions.”
“We lost a lot of experience,” he said. “Now you’ve got these individuals trying to diagnose the system when the veteran could have said, ‘Hey it’s a fuse, take the old fuse out, put a new fuse’ and the AC is running."
Among those let go, Mireles said the district lost HVAC technicians who had deep knowledge of their schools.
Mireles explained these workers are supposed to complete a series of checks over the summer to prepare AC units for the fall. However, he said TSPE Local 1 members had expressed concerns to him about potential lapses in that process.
Mireles said he believed the May staff cuts also affected the digital control center (DCC), where district HVAC systems are monitored according to a job posting on the HISD website.
On Friday, Mireles said the May layoffs had not only affected AC maintenance but also groundskeeping. Earlier this month, community members gathered together to pick up storm debris outside Marshall Middle School.
To resolve those issues, Mireles said he wanted to see HISD Superintendent Mike Miles rehire some of the workers who were let go in the spring.
“Why don't you bring back the experienced HVAC (technicians), the experienced maintenance employees, the ones that know the campus, the ones that know the school,” he said.
TPSE Local 1 VP Daisy Lozano called on HISD parents to keep asking questions about the AC outages and demanding accountability from the district.
“Kids have gotten sick because of this,” she said. “I’m here to speak up for other parents, they need to come out and get together and do something about it.”
On Friday, HISD said maintenance crews are working hard to repair the school district’s HVAC systems, which are “old and need more attention.”
HISD released the following statement earlier this week:
"HISD is committed to providing a safe and comfortable learning environment for all our students and staff. Our facilities and maintenance teams are a vital part of our operations and have been working hard to get ahead of possible HVAC issues and respond as they emerge. As we’ve reported, some of our systems are old and need more attention, it takes a tremendous effort to maintain these systems and keep HVAC operating. Our crews are doing their best to keep up with the record temperatures and remain focused on keeping our campuses running."