HOUSTON — As students within Houston ISD settle into another semester, the district is facing questions from concerned parents about air conditioning.
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 appears that the problem has 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.”
At Harvard Elementary in the Heights, where there’s a confirmed AC outage, vents can still be seen in the school’s windows where it appears staff may have attached portable cooling units. On Tuesday, at least one student was observed leaving the campus with their own portable electric fan.
At pickup time, Harvard parents told KHOU 11 News that AC problems started years ago and seemed to reappear every fall semester. Second-grade parent Alma Alling said she was concerned about safety and the impact of the heat on every student’s ability to focus.
“The kids are taking their beginning of the year exams,” she said. “Having a student take these tests in that environment, it’s warm, they can't concentrate, maybe they get to hot."
Alling said the school’s principal had communicated with parents, informing them of a temporary “chiller” that had been installed in the school. However, with some classrooms still warm enough to have students relocate, Alling said she wanted to see a solution from HISD soon.
“Our principal has been great, she’s been on our school messaging app, she’s been keeping us posted,” she said. “If this was something the PTA could fix, they would have done so already, but I think this should and ultimately does fall on the administration to fix.”