AREA SCHOOLS FEEL THE HEAT
Teachers, parents report hot temps in classrooms
With some kids already back in the classroom and the majority of students slated to start class Monday, parents and teachers are raising concerns over the high temperatures in Albuquerque Public Schools classrooms.
Zachery Sedlak is a parent of a first-grader at Pajarito Elementary School.
While Sedlak didn’t want to name his son, he told the Journal that the 6-year-old is in the special education program at Pajarito, which started school July 29 as part of the extended calendar.
Sedlak said his son’s class is in a metal portable without airconditioning, adding that it heats up to whatever the temperature is outside.
The father took note of the heat at a teacher meet-up on July 26, but said it remains a problem.
He said school staff prop open the door to get the air flowing, but it doesn’t help.
He notes that Albuquerque’s summer heat is in full force, saying it got to 98 degrees at one point.
“There’s no AC, it’s a metal building. If it’s 98 degrees outside, it’s probably the same inside,” he told the Journal.
He’s worried about how the heat is affecting his child’s schooling.
“It’s not good for him to be in that environment,” he said.
Staff tell Sedlak that his son is covered in sweat throughout the day.
“It’s not a place where you can really teach children, especially not a special needs child who has attention issues,” he said.
He said he wants a fix to get his son’s classroom to a reasonable temperature immediately.
“Honestly, we feel it’s neglectful,” he said.
APS spokeswoman Johanna King said via email that maintenance and operations checked the district’s air-conditioning units this summer to make sure they were working.
“Still, pumps and motors sometimes go out, or there are other problems, especially with older units. If it feels like the air-conditioning isn’t working in a classroom, let someone in the school’s front office know. They can put in a work order with APS Maintenance and Operations. M&O crews and contractors are responding to these issues as quickly as possible, working after hours and on weekends, as well,” she said.
King also pointed to humidity as a problem, saying evaporative coolers — swamp coolers — don’t work as well in humid conditions.
The problems aren’t just at Pajarito.
Teachers from other schools tell the Journal that they are experiencing similar issues.
Tomás Sánchez, a seventhand eighth-grade social studies teacher at Washington Middle School, has been back at the school for a work week.
He says the heat is affecting his ability to do his job.
“It takes a lot longer for me to get that job done,” he said. “There’s a lack of focus, and you start to get drained faster.”
He’s about to start his 14th year at the school and notes that the past several years have been “pretty bad” in terms of temperature control.
He thinks the school administration is doing everything it can.
“Our principal put in numerous calls to APS,” he said.
“We are told they are working on it, we see people come in, but nothing really seems to change,” he added.
He said most of the school is “really, really hot” and only a few rooms are at a reasonable temperature.
A thermometer in his classroom reads 87 degrees.
He brought five fans into his classroom to help.
Over at Ernie Pyle Middle School, fans are running in Ben Temkin’s nearly 85-degree classroom, too — fans he paid for himself.
Temkin, a seventhgrade English and creative writing teacher, says the school’s newer additions have working refrigerated air, but the main building, which houses the majority of classes, isn’t as fortunate.
“In the main building, there’s swamp coolers, but they are blowing hot air. I don’t know what’s going on,” he said.
He said going back to work was “a little rough.”
“We sit in the library from 8 to 3 for (professional development) one day. It’s pretty bad when you get bodies in there,” he says. “Everyone is sweating and not having very much fun.”
In this time, he is supposed to be prepping for the new school year, but the heat is making that a challenge.
“I’m getting on chairs to hang things on walls, moving furniture around, and it’s miserable,” he said.
He worries about Monday when kids are in that space.
“It doesn’t really make a conducive learning environment,” he said.
Like Sánchez, he thinks his school administration is doing everything it can, putting in work orders.
“They have been trying to get it fixed before we got back,” he said.
Celeste Hernandez, a first-grade teacher at Lew Wallace Elementary School, says the classrooms there easily get to 90 degrees.
“There’s classrooms (where) the air will work on low, but not on high,” she said. “Others don’t turn on at all.”
Four tower fans, which she purchased with her own money, manage to keep her class in the mid-70s.
Hernandez taught summer school this year and said the air-conditioning didn’t work at that time, either.
She sees it as a hindrance for the staff and kids.
“I would say it just makes it pretty much impossible to get stuff done, and when we have kids come and there’s 20 little bodies around, it makes it pretty impossible to teach, because kids aren’t paying attention. It’s so hot,” she told the Journal.
At a recent union meeting, Albuquerque Teachers Federation president Ellen Bernstein asked the estimated 130 educators attending to raise their hands if they had working air-conditioners. She said about 10 people raised their hands.
Bernstein said it’s typical to have heat issues at the start of the school year, but this year feels widespread.
“The rule of thumb is you have to get a work order in. But if everyone has a work order in, there’s only so many workers and so much that can be done,” she said.
The union leader said the heat makes for “horrible” working conditions.
The issues at APS come after voters overwhelmingly rejected its two mill levy and bond questions in February — money that in part would have gone toward maintenance.
The measures would have raised property tax bills by about 5% and brought in $900 million to APS over the next six years.
APS is planning to go to voters again in November with a mill levy and bond package that does not raise taxes.