HOUSTON — Classes were canceled for one Houston ISD campus as crews worked to repair an HVAC system that went down.
The district confirmed that TH Rogers School was closed on Wednesday and that crews were onsite working to repair the AC. The school is on San Felipe near Chimney Rock in the Galleria area.
“We understand this is an inconvenience for parents, but our number one priority is ensuring a safe and comfortable learning environment for all our students and staff,” the district said in a statement Wednesday morning.
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An Excessive Heat Warning remained in effect on Wednesday after the National Weather Service said highs could reach 105 and feel-like temps could reach 113.
On Wednesday, Andy Dewey with the Houston Federation of Teachers said the A/C problems at TH Rogers began months ago.
"I've learned the air was an issue all summer long over at Rogers," he said. "Clearly, it's still a problem. Yesterday, teachers told me it was chaos. Parents were coming all day long picking up their kids from the school."
Dewey said he believes students are facing the consequences of the district's decision to cut several maintenance staff members last spring.
"The district is not doing what any competent administration would do, the basic maintenance of their school buildings and their other physical facilities. It’s just not getting done," he said.
In an update to parents around 5 p.m., the school explained that the AC had been restored and classes would resume Thursday as scheduled.
The AC outage at TH Rogers comes as the district has been facing questions from concerned parents at several HISD schools.
Last week, HISD confirmed that at least four of the district’s nearly 250 campuses dealt with air conditioning problems in the first few days of school. At the time, the district said it would work to address the issue. However, days later, it appeared that the problem had only grown.
On Monday, HISD confirmed that Law Elementary experienced a “malfunction with one of its chillers."
The district said a decision was made to transfer students and staff to nearby Woodson Elementary to ensure their “safety and comfort” while technicians worked with campus leaders to address the issue.
Just 24 hours after that, concerned parents and educators notified KHOU 11 News about four more schools that dealt with potential AC issues on Tuesday. When we asked HISD to confirm the status of the AC units at these schools, a district spokesperson replied with the following statement:
“The safety and well-being of our students is our top priority. HISD has had issues with air conditioning in some classrooms because our HVAC systems are older and need frequent attention. Our teams work to quickly identify and address HVAC system issues. When an issue persists, campus leaders work to keep students and educators comfortable by moving them to buildings or classrooms with functioning HVAC systems.”