Even in the midst of a heat wave, some students in the San Diego Unified School District are still having to learn in hot classrooms because of air conditioning issues.
The district says it has received more than 1,100 work orders for heating and cooling systems in the last 30 days and that, so far, it has resolved 468 of the highest priority orders. A work order can be as simple as a system not operating efficiently or as serious as the system isn't working at all, an SDUSD spokesperson said.
At Garfield Elementary School in North Park on Wednesday, students became sick due to the heat and were treated by the school nurse, according to a letter to parents from Principal Mechale Mency Murphy. San Diego Fire-Rescue confirmed one child was transported to Rady Children's Hospital for difficulty breathing.
Mency Murphy said the campus has had issues with their air conditioning and SDUSD's HVAC technicians are investigating. By Thursday, the district said a/c issues at the campus had been resolved.
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"In the meantime, the district will deploy temporary portable air conditioning units to our campus," Mency Murphy said in the letter. "Today, and whenever this becomes a challenge, students are relocated to another space where air conditioning is working."
The principal added they take temperatures into account before students go outside and encourage additional water breaks.
Garfield Elementary School isn't the only SDUSD camps experiencing problems amid the heat. As NBC 7 has previously reported, some students are complaining about the sweltering temperature in classrooms.
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“The first day of school, I was sweating because the AC was broken," Hoover High School student Elvis Urista said. "It was just really bad."
San Diego Unified says the completed work orders are having an impact, and some classrooms across the school district are cooler.
“It feels better now, so I can focus on my work a little better,” Urista said.
Work orders are prioritized based on grade level, severity of the situation and the needs of the students impacted, according to Samer Naji, the district's facilities communication supervisor.
Naji says the district is diligently working to resolve the issues as soon as possible.
