FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas - Some parents in Fort Bend County say they are fed up with their kids coming home from school sick and tired due to air conditioning units that keep breaking.
On Monday, several classrooms didn’t have working units, and kids say they spent the day miserably hot.
“It was really hot,” said 5th grader Jonas Pechacek. “And, like, kids kept on having to go get water, like, every five minutes, and we kind of felt nauseous.”
“It was so hot, I could barely like think,” said 5th grader Ricky Francis.
The faulty units are heating up frustrations, too.
“It’s ridiculous and it’s unnecessary,” said Brittany Francis, parent and PTO President. “The staff is there all day long teaching our children, walking through these halls in stifling hot heat. And these kids...somebody is going to get so hot there going to pass out and they’re going to hit their head.”
Francis says this isn’t a one-off problem and is a problem she’s been vocal about for years.
“It’s on a daily basis. The school is not taken care of as far as the air conditioning and the district knows it," she said.
In a statement, Fort Bend ISD admits there are issues district wide saying, in part “...we have aging facilities and systems in the District, and we work diligently to address issues as they arise. The November 6 bond referendum includes $396.5 million to address life-cycle deficiencies and facility adequacy across the District, including identified deficiencies at Pecan Grove Elementary.”
But parents, including mom Shauna French, say this is an issue that needs to be fixed now.
“It instantly makes me upset because they are little their kids,” French said. “I feel like something as simple as air conditioning, it shouldn’t be an issue that we are having to go out and talk to each other about or the media or anything...that’s something that is so simple.”
The district says when kids go back to Pecan Grove Elementary on Tuesday, the AC will be working.
FBISD’s full statement:
“Fort Bend ISD is committed to providing a safe and comfortable learning environment for all of our nearly 76,000 students. Our facilities crews work each day to respond to all work orders in a timely fashion so that they can diagnose A/C issues and initiate repairs.
"In the meantime, our principals and campus administrative teams will monitor conditions inside of our classrooms and school buildings to ensure that students and staff are not kept in areas that are unsafe or impede the learning process, and if necessary, relocate students, utilize fans and/or make other modifications.
"Crews responded to Pecan Grove Elementary this afternoon to assess the system and make necessary repairs, and it was determined that two of the schools air handlers tripped, causing them to go offline and resulting in some warm areas within the school. Crews worked into the evening to complete the repairs and the school’s a/c will be functioning tomorrow as normal.
"As I shared earlier, we have aging facilities and systems in the District, and we work diligently to address issues as they arise. The November 6 bond referendum includes $396.5 million to address life-cycle deficiencies and facility adequacy across the District, including identified deficiencies at Pecan Grove Elementary.”