Keeping students cool in summer a challenge |
On Board Online •Around the State • July 21, 2008
By Marc Humbert
Senior Writer
The heat wave that New York experienced in early June had some school officials dismissing students early, hauling out fans and cycling kids into air-conditioned parts of their buildings.
In some schools, though, it was business as usual – with perspiration. “For a lot of people, it just meant they were there and they were hot,” Brian Monahan, superintendent of North Rockland Schools, told On Board.
“We have a couple of buildings where on the top floor, on the sunny side, it had to be 100 degrees in some of the rooms,” he recalled.
Monahan said that after the first day of the heat, he ordered that buildings without air conditioning be closed after a half day.
“This is the first time I remember us closing for heat,” said Monahan.
The heat wave also caught the attention of three lawmakers from suburban Westchester County. They have proposed legislation that would set a maximum classroom temperature of 95 degrees.
While New York schools are required, by law, to maintain a minimum temperature of 65 degrees, there is no such limit on the other end of the thermometer scale.
One of the sponsors, Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, said that climate changes might be making it harder for schools keep students safe and comfortable.
“When I was in school many, many years ago, when you got out of school at the end of June that was about when the temperatures were really starting to get very, very warm,” said Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat. “But the reality of winding up with temperatures that are climbing into the 90s and even the 100s in May really startled a lot of people.”
Also signed on the bill are two members of the state Assembly’s Democratic majority, Michael Spano and Gary Pretlow.
Because air conditioning is not required by the state, the State Education Department has no figures on how many schools have it, said SED spokesman Jonathan Burman.
Many school buildings lack central air conditioning because they are old. For instance, while all schools built in New York City in the past 20 years have air conditioning, that’s only 100 of the city’s 1,100 school buildings.
In the North Rockland district, two of eight buildings are air conditioned, Monahan said.
“The kids who were going to be taking Regents exams, we kept in school,” Monahan said. “And, frankly, the teachers and even most of the kids were glad to be there at that point because it was just a week or so before the exams.”
The chairman of the state Senate’s Education Committee, Republican Stephen Saland of Dutchess County, said he thinks the concern about school temperature is overblown.
“Schools in my (Senate) district and in other districts either closed on those oppressively hot days or closed after initially opening,” Saland said. “The bottom line is: I’m not sure the system has failed.”
“Schools responded, using their local discretion, and took advantage of so-called snow days or brought students in for a minimum amount of time and then excused them,” he added.
Saland said there may be a need to someday discuss universal air conditioning for schools, if the state were to move to a longer school year and keep classrooms open all summer.
“The ability of students to function well in the dog days of July and August is certainly something people would have to consider,” he said.
Nonetheless, he also said, “We simply haven’t gotten there.”
What about summer school? The prediction by the Old Farmer’s Almanac for the northeastern U.S., which includes part of upstate New York, isn’t all that favorable. “Summer will be rainier and slightly hotter than normal,” according to the publication’s website, almanac.com.
But most of the discomfort is behind us, according to the Almanac: “The hottest periods will occur in mid- to late June and mid-July.”