Letters to the Editor: Why, oh why, does L.A. start school mid-August?

To the editor: Your editorial on the patchy availability of air conditioning in L.A.-area schools notes that “kids return to school during the worst heat of the year.” This is the only acknowledgment of an unaddressed solution that could go a long way toward mitigating this pending catastrophe.

Why on Earth does school start in the middle of the hottest month of the year? Never mind the fact that many people are on vacation in August.

Why not start school later and end in June, the month otherwise known in L.A. as the reliably cool month of “June gloom”? No A/C needed.

Sara R. Nichols, Los Angeles

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To the editor: I grew up in Monrovia in the mid-1960s. Temperatures got up to the 90s and sometimes even the 100s.

We had no A/C in our school but survived and thrived with fans and regular water breaks. Nuns wore their black habits. I don’t know how they survived these extremes.

Stop trying to turn us into a bunch of softies by putting A/C in all classrooms, apartments, homes and workplaces. People must learn to cope. Adversity makes us stronger.

Henry Nowakowski, Orange

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To the editor: Your editorial on the lack of air conditioning in some 650 K-12 classrooms in the L.A. Unified School District was very unsettling. Kids, no more so than adults, cannot learn in that environment — and who knows how many children for that reason don’t even show up for school?

What if the LAUSD created a “Keep ’Em Cool” program through which caring members of the public may donate suitable new air conditioning units or the money to purchase them? If each affected school publicized exactly what it needed, this information might be posted on the district’s website, with units then shipped directly to the schools in question.

Alternatively, the district might create a “Keep ’Em Cool” fund to which members of the public might contribute, with assurances from the district that the monies will be spent quickly for the acquisition and installation of the units at the needy schools.

Large-capacity window air conditioners cost about $750 to $1,000 apiece. At this price, and with the proper publicity, we might be pleasantly surprised at how many people are willing to pitch in so our K-12 kids can stay cool enough to learn.

Chris May, Pacific Palisades