Poway Unified has purchased portable air conditioning units for individual classrooms at Rancho Bernardo High School and Bernardo Heights Middle School, but the schools will still have minimum day schedules the rest of the week as a heat wave hits the area.
For the past several weeks, district officials have been working to come up with solutions for the ongoing problems with the 32-year-old air conditioning system that have left students and teachers sweltering in their classrooms since school opened Aug. 17.
A new chiller is expected to be delivered on Wednesday, said Poway Unified School District spokeswoman Christine Paik. In order to install the chiller, a machine that removes heat from a liquid coolant via a vapor-compressor, the entire system must be shut down, officials said.
Students at Rancho Bernardo High will get out at 1:15 p.m. while those at the middle school will be released at noon.
After multiple system resets and part replacements, repairing the system has proven unsuccessful, Superintendent Marian Kim Phelps wrote in a letter to parents Friday. The district ordered the portable air conditioning units, which were delivered beginning Monday.
“We are hoping to get these AC units into classrooms as soon as possible prior to the backup chiller being installed by the end of next week,” Phelps said in the letter.
The HVAC system at the high school and middle school is an outdated and unreliable system, Phelps wrote in a letter to parents on Aug. 25. The long-term solution is to replace the entire system, which would cost at least $10 million, she said.
“We attempted to raise money for this and other aging systems in PUSD back in 2020 via Measure P, a bond measure, but were unsuccessful,” she wrote.
Phelps said the issue “has been a top priority.”
“We understand these are not ideal conditions for teaching and learning for our students and staff,” she wrote. “While you have received regular updates from your principals, I wanted to assure you that staff and technicians have been working day and night over the past week to try to resolve the problem, but with limited success.”
“During my visits, it was clear that our students and staff were trying to make the best of things with fans on in the classroom and moving outside in the shade, but again, this is not sustainable, nor the experience we want for our schools, staff, or students,” she wrote.
Phelps said there is no quick fix to the problem. The repairs and replacement parts are taking longer than expected, she said.
“As you’re aware, on some days, the AC is working again, other days it stops working when we need it most. To put it simply, the system serving BHMS and RBHS relies on the overnight creation of ice to generate cool air the following day. This method is inefficient to serve both schools and occasionally the system fails to make enough ice to last the day or fails to make any ice altogether.”
Officials are awaiting an estimate from an outside company to shut down the existing system and repair the compressor and drive line of the existing system.
“In addition to the question of how to secure this funding without a bond measure, a system replacement would also involve major construction at our school sites, which would need to occur without students or staff present.” she wrote. “Therefore, while this solution is being explored for the long term, we are focusing more on realistic short-term solutions that will hopefully bring some relief to our staff and students in the near future.”
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Angela Brandt is a staff writer for the Poway News Chieftain and Rancho Bernardo News Journal.
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