Board of Finance OKs 200 AC units for schools
STAMFORD — Some city classrooms will be getting relief during hot days this year, as the school district received approval to install 200 window air conditioner units.
The Board of Finance agreed to a $300,000 request to install the units, which will go to classrooms that have no air conditioning.
The work is being spread out over two phases, with another 148 classrooms slated for window units next year, contingent upon board approval.
The process to get the cooling units approved was a long one, as the Board of Finance held the item twice before voting in favor of it Thursday night. Last month, members fell short of supporting the measure because of what some of them perceived as a poor analysis of options and costs.
This time around, school officials looked at more options for renting cooling units, whether that be window-based ones or portable ones. In all cases, the cost would exceed the price of purchasing the units outright, especially when factoring in recurring carpentry work that would be required to install and remove the units.
All along, city and school officials have agreed the need to provide cooler classrooms is a major one.
“We’ve heard complaints for years and years now about hot temperatures in classrooms in our schools,” said Mayor Caroline Simmons, during a Board of Finance meeting last month. She’s been told temperatures can reach as high as 90 degrees in some classrooms, she said. “It can be really unbearable on some of these hot days for students to learn.”
Simmons argued that excessive heat can lead to a decline in academic performance from students. Additionally, hot classes can mean early dismissals,
disrupting education.
To address the issue, the city partnered with the school district, saying it would help pay for cooling the classrooms. Of the $300,000 proposed for the initial 200 units, $150,000 would come from the city’s coffers, with the schools funding the other half.
“I feel really that this is the bare minimum that we owe to our teachers and students and administrators to be able to learn in quality conditions and in temperatures that are bearable,” Simmons said, at that meeting.
Previously, schools Superintendent Tamu Lucero said three buildings are the most in need — Dolan Middle School, K.T. Murphy Elementary School and Cloonan Middle School. Dolan’s third floor is a possible place the district would start, she said. Classrooms on that floor were close to 90 degrees last August.
McCarthy said the schools that would get new units would be those three, plus Northeast, Roxbury, Newfield and Springdale elementary schools, Turn of River Middle School and Stamford and Westhill high schools. Some schools would see more window units than others, as Stamford High would get 75 new cooling units, while Westhill would get 74. On the lower end, Northeast would have only one unit installed.
Overall, there are 139 classrooms in the city with central air conditioning and another 279 with window AC units. About 379 classes have no air conditioning at all.
The window units themselves will cost roughly $600 each, with the installation work for each estimated to cost $900. That work includes installing electrical outlets for the units, as well as removing windows and inserting plywood panels into the areas where the units will sit.
Member Geoff Alswanger expressed concern about spending money on units for schools slated to be shuttered in a few years, such as Roxbury and Westhill.
Additionally, he was worried the units to be installed at Stamford High would be visible along the building’s facade.
“I would personally advocate, specific to Stamford High, that we should spend more money, add a proper HVAC system to that building and do it in a proper way so that as all of us are coming up and down Strawberry Hill we’re not seeing portable air conditioners with plywood in the windows,” he said.
Michael Smith, one of the school district’s director of facilities, said most of the units at the high school would be in the south and east sides of the building, not the front.
Ultimately, the board voted unanimously to support the measure, with chairman Richard Freedman being absent.
Alswanger voted in favor but under the condition that the district try to limit how many units are installed at Roxbury and Westhill — two buildings expected to close in 2027 — and that none go toward the front of Stamford High.
Lucero pushed back on that request, saying staff and students at both Roxbury and Westhill would still need to be in non-air-conditioned rooms if neither were to get any new units.
Members said they would like to be updated on where the units are being installed as the process is ongoing.
“I understand the concerns and we will do our best to pay attention to that as we decide where things are going at Roxbury and Westhill,” Lucero said.
Another 148 units are slated for next year, though Board of Finance members questioned installing A/Cs in buildings planned to be closed soon.