Scores of AC issues at HISD schools on first day

Schools in Houston ISD reported dozens of problems with air conditioning on a sweltering first day of school, according to Superintendent Mike Miles, and technicians were dispatched across the district to address the issues.

“We had many, many requests to look at the air conditioning units,” Miles said during a press conference Monday. “We had 50 technicians in the field, and they were able to keep the schools cool enough to hold classes and have instruction.”

Starting early in the morning before school hours, the district received 91 reports of mechanical issues that impacted air conditioning, including some temporary outages triggered by power issues, Miles said.

Miles said schools may be closed if maintenance workers are unable to resolve the problem within three hours and a school reaches 82 degrees. No schools were closed on the first day due to rising temperatures.

Houston broke temperature records in recent days, and Harris County was under a heat advisory Monday as the heat index rose above 108 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

One parent said there is no functioning AC in the hallways at her child’s school, Helms Elementary, and classrooms were uncomfortable because teachers had to keep their doors propped open under a new policy implemented by Miles.

Another HISD parent, Heather Golden, said her daughter came home from Houston Academy for International Studies, an early college magnet school, looking “very sweaty.”

The teen told her mother that there was no functioning AC in the entire school, which has some classroom doors that open to the outside.

“It was so hot inside that she chose to eat lunch outside yesterday, because it felt better outside,” Golden said.

The parent said she has received no communication from the school or district about the issue.

“I’m frustrated that we’re not getting any answer,” she said. “I don’t think it’s good for kids.”

Golden said the AC was back to working by late Tuesday morning.