School’s not very cool

A line of fourth-graders waited patiently for a turn at the classroom

drinking fountain while their teacher, Freyja Thompson, read aloud

over the whir of fans used to ease the afternoon heat at McKinley

Elementary School.

McKinley is one of three schools in the Burbank Unified School

District that are without air-conditioning in many of their

buildings.

“It’s miserable,” Thompson said. “The children have such a hard

time paying attention.”

All three of the schools -- McKinley, Providencia Elementary

School and Monterey Continuation High School -- are waiting to be

modernized.

Members of the school’s faculty and administration agree that

students have a harder time learning when they are distracted by

temperatures that can reach over 100 degrees in the classrooms,

McKinley Principal Sue Holliday said.

“The worst time of day is the afternoon, after the kids have been

playing outside,” said Holliday. “It’s hard to have real productive

time with kids when its very hot, it’s a problem.”

Teachers try to find way to bring down temperatures -- most use

the district’s large metal fans, and others bring small spritzer

bottles to spray a mist of water on the children when they come in

from recess or lunch.

This will be fourth-grader Skyler Nelson’s second year without air

conditioning.

“It was awful [last year],” she said. “One kid got dehydrated and

he had to go to the office. It was kind of upsetting.”

Skyler agreed that the heat in the classroom makes learning more

difficult.

“Sometimes it can be very frustrating, you can’t concentrate,” she

saidThompson is one of several teachers who use their own money to

buy fans that are powerful and quiet -- many find it hard to be heard

when the district-provided fans are set on their highest setting.

Finding ways around the heat takes up time that could be better

spent, teachers said.

“It cuts into teaching time,” first-grade teacher Diana Wong said.

“Teachers with air conditioning don’t have to worry about how to keep

the kids cool.”

Students are encouraged cut back on their physical activity during

warmer months.

“We encourage them not to run around outside at lunch time,” said

Thompson. “They come back inside and get headaches then they can’t

pay attention.”

Parents are also frustrated at their children having to endure hot

classrooms during the warmer months.

“I know that she comes home sweaty,” Suzanne Weertz said of her

daughter Madeline, who attends McKinley. “I wonder how effective

learning can be later in the afternoon when the classrooms are so

hot.”

After hearing concerns from parents, school board member Larry

Applebaum brought the issue to the head of the Chief of Facilities

Craig Jellison at the school board meeting Thursday, asking him what

could be done to have air conditioning placed in the schools this

fall.

“I asked him to come back with a feasibility plan for getting roof

and air-conditioning work done at the remaining four sites that have

yet to be modernized over the course of next summer,” said Applebaum.

“I believe it’s worth going after, and it’s something we can

hopefully accomplish.”

Jellison could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

But Holliday is worried that the air conditioning can’t be

installed ahead of schedule because of the complexity of the future

modernization.

“I don’t think they can put in air conditioning until they do the

whole thing, it’s part of the structure of the building,” she said.

The district’s facilities team is considering options on how to

move up parts of the modernization to allow for the installation of

air conditioning, said Chuck Colgan, the district’s maintenance and

operations compliance manager.

“We’ll take a look at it and we’ll just have to go from there,”

Colgan said. “We’ll have to see whether it makes good sense to do so.

There’s a lot of pieces in the puzzle that have to happen to put air

conditioning in.”

In the meantime, students and teachers will continue to find

innovative ways around the heat and wait to see what the district

decides.

“Modernization takes time,” said Holliday. “It’s hard when your

school is last. Its hard for the families of the kids who come home

and tell there parents how hard it is in the afternoon. They get hot

and miserable.”

Parents also hope that a plan will be enacted fast.

“I want to make sure its in the forefront of some people’s mind so

they don’t forget the schools that haven’t been dealt with,” said

Weertz.