For some city schools, year starts with new A/C

At dozens of Columbus City Schools buildings, students traditionally have been welcomed back to sweltering classrooms.

But this school year, which opened Thursday for a projected 51,500 students who attend Ohio’s largest school district, that tradition will be broken for thousands of them thanks to a voter-approved 2016 bond issue that has enabled upgrades to numerous buildings, including cherished air conditioning.

For the first time, Marion-Franklin High School, Valley Forge Elementary, and Forest Park Elementary will have air conditioning in classrooms. Within weeks, West and Walnut Ridge high schools will join the ranks of the cool as projects there are completed.

On Wednesday, as teachers and staff members at Forest Park Elementary prepared classrooms in the building near Route 161 and Karl Road on the Northeast Side, they basked in air-conditioned comfort for the first time.

Rhonna McKibbin, who has been principal of Forest Park for 12 years, has seen her share of sweating out start-of-the-year heat waves, “where the kids are putting wet paper towels on their foreheads and the lights are out,” she said.

But not this year. “Oh my gosh, it was great,” said McKibbin, adding that work crews had just fired up the new HVAC system this week. “It is wonderful.”

“It’s night and day. It makes such a big difference, and you’re just in a better mood when you have air.”

In November 2016, district voters passed Issue 57, which focused on maintenance and repairs, hiring of key staff members, and raising money for general operations. The 6.92 new mills, an 18 percent increase in school taxes, raised tax bills by about $242 a year for every $100,000 in assessed property value.

Part of that money went toward annual payments on a $125 million loan to pay for new roofs, security systems, heating and ventilation overhauls, fire alarm replacements, lighting and electrical system upgrades, and other improvements at 37 elementary schools, 13 middle schools and 15 high schools. The repairs are expected to take another three years.

“No one will notice the roofing repairs that went on over the summer,” said district spokesman Scott Varner.

The project wasn’t intended to add air conditioning to schools, bur rather address deteriorating heating systems in need of replacement, Varner said. But the district realized that “with very little additional costs, we could add air conditioning,” he said.

“Operation: Fix It” also has improved the district’s security systems, with the construction of safety vestibules at school entrances. The lobby areas at four schools are now equipped with a twodoor system, requiring people entering the schools to pass through a main office to gain access to the rest of the building, the district said.

Other upgrades include new fire-alarm systems that verbally instruct students and staff members where to go in an emergency.