Disaster Almost 50 Baltimore schools with no AC close early as temps hit 90 on first day of fall - The poor children...

Almost 50 Baltimore schools with no AC close early as temps hit 90 on first day of fall

The schools that lacked air conditioning dismissed students early for the third time this month.

www.nbcnews.com

Almost 50 Baltimore schools with no AC close early as temps hit 90 on first day of fall
The schools that lacked air conditioning dismissed students early for the third time this month.


Sept. 23, 2019, 4:01 PM EDT / Updated Sept. 23, 2019, 4:24 PM EDT
By Daniella Silva
About 50 schools in Baltimore that lack air conditioning dismissed students early on Monday, the first day of fall, for the third time this month as temperatures hit a stifling 90 degrees.
Due to the high temperatures, about 50 schools without air conditioning were to dismiss three hours early, Baltimore City Public Schools said in a statement on Monday morning.

The school district previously announced the affected schools would dismiss three hours early on Sept. 12 and two hours early on Sept. 4, the second day of classes.
The schools are listed on the district’ website as designated for early dismissal on “extremely hot days.” Temperatures have repeatedly reached the low 90s in Baltimore this month.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan wrote in a post on Facebook Monday afternoon that this was "the third time in the new school year that students are being deprived of valuable time in the classroom because of this problem."
"I am appalled that this continues to detract from the education of thousands of young Marylanders who deserve a safe, healthy, and comfortable learning environment," he wrote. "This is the third-highest funded large school system in America — where’s the accountability?"
Earlier Monday, in response to the third day of early dismissals, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s office referred to a previous statement the governor made after the first day of early dismissals this year.
“It is outrageous and completely unacceptable that the third-highest funded school system in America still refuses to put air conditioning in all their schools, and had to send kids home from 57 hot school buildings,” Hogan wrote in a statement on Sept. 4. “The Baltimore City School System must be held accountable.”



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According to the Baltimore Sun, the city has some of Maryland’s oldest school buildings and a maintenance backlog of roughly $3 billion worth of projects. In an update to its air-conditioning plan published in May, the district said its buildings overall were the oldest of any school district in the state and "numerous buildings need significant system upgrades or complete replacement."
In 2016, Hogan threatened to withhold millions of dollars in school construction funding, calling on officials to come up with a plan to install air conditioning in the schools.
The school district said in its May plan that it developed a plan in 2017 to ensure all buildings in its district would have air-conditioning by the 2022-2023 school year, but it added that completion by that time was no longer possible given available funding.
In a previous statement, the Baltimore Teachers Union said the early dismissals did not come as a surprise.
“Our scholars continue to suffer academically because their instructional time is interrupted due to these extreme conditions,” Diamonté Brown, president of the union, said. “While the district works to find and implement a resolution for this ongoing problem, we, as a community, must continue to develop creative and innovative solutions ... to help our educators provide our scholars with a classroom environment that is conducive for learning.”
The union collected hundreds of fans for teachers to use in overheated classrooms.
The union and Baltimore City Public Schools did not respond to immediate request for comment Monday.



Seriously, whoever is running the budget for the Baltimore public school system needs to be fired and charged for negligence. Doesn't make any type of sense to not have basic necessities like air conditioning. I know America's school system is lacking, but this takes it on a whole new level. Baltimore's government has failed its citizens yet again and nothing is being done about it.

 

[Underestimated Nutria]

Indeed. Needlessly pedantic AND technically wrong. The worst kind of wrong...

I'm confused?

 

[CWCchange]

Depends on the build of the school. In my parents day the schools were built with huge windows that could be opened to let air flow. In newer builds there are no, or few windows that open. Given that it's Baltimore I'd assume the bars over the windows prevent them from being opened.

A Carrier-Honeywell-United States Steel conspiracy, I tell you! Schools, and frankly most buildings for that matter, were designed to maximize airflow. Hell, I went to an elementary school built by the WPA, which are notorious for shoddy workmanship and haphazard planning issues, but still managed to take advantage of breezes and use shade trees in fucking South Florida. Only recently was it torn down and rebuilt, and its replacement certainly won't have as long a life. When stuff is built to serve as emergency shelters structurally, but use the cheapest fixtures and equipment, devastating outcomes ensue.

My school was poor when I was a kid, same deal, freezing cold in the winter, hot as hell in the summer. At some point they got a large grant, which they spent on unnecessary new state of the art computers and flatscreen TVs, and a brand new foyer full of said flatscreen TVs. The air conditioning and heating was not improved.

We had IBMs from the late-80s to mid-90s in primary school, which were used into the early-2000s; built like tanks, took abuse from little shits, and operating systems weren't released defective (no readily available online update services at the time) and ran with no issues at all. After getting Dells, computers had to be replaced every two or three years. In Baltimore, they would last two or three days and the School Board and teachers union representing anything but such would be demanding mo money fo dem programs.

 

[Pixy]

Those of you saying that fans are all one needs to stay cool hasn't had to work in an old brick building. In buildings like that the heat does not fade easily since brick is a fairly good insulator, and I have a strong feeling that a lot of schools there are like that.

It's even worse if it's humid out. I feel for those kids.

Went to a heritage listed school where we couldn't have A/Cs because 'old wiring', and due to some kids in the 80s messing with it for a secret room underneath a staffroom. Overhead fans worked well for staying cool, as well as being forced to wear cotton uniforms. Closing blinds and opening windows would help alleviate it, I assume.

That's just an Australian solution, though, because we're used to temperatures hitting 30C and above. IDK what regular temperatures in Baltimore during Autumn are, but they better get used to 90F being the new normal.

 

[heathercho]

none of my schools had ac and none closed, we had to learn it didn't matter how hot it was.

edit: 90F is not even that hot... murifats are weak.

Wtf. We never had ac at our school either and 32c is a moderate summers day here. And we were expected to go outside for lunch for an hour. I know people are used to ac now, but maybe they shouldn't be. They're both screeching about lack of coal burning ac in this article and yet moaning about 32c weather like it's climate change's fault.

 

[RadicalCentrist]

The teachers didn't want to deal with the little monsters while being hot. That's the long and the short of it.

Lmao at my school we were dumped for recess not in a playground but in an extra parking lot with pitch black asphalt. Jesus it got hotter than hell. Nobody gave a damn, let alone write an article, when I got sunstroke.

 

[Jump]

None of the schools I went to had AC. They where all older buildings with windows that opened up. I remember a few teachers turning the lights off (you could still see fine from the window light) and we where dumb enough to think it actually helped.
My highschool was 50's era construction with massive floor to ceiling windows that flipped open and exhaust fans in the halls. With the classroom doors open there was always a nice breeze. I don't remember the heat being the problem. It was the fucking bugs from lack of screens.

Those buildings are all long gone now and replaced with mega schools that have few windows and central AC . They remind me of prisons.