Chicago heat wave: CPS scrambles to keep AC working in all classrooms after soaring temperatures and isolated outages

Facing soaring indoor temperatures due to insufficient air conditioning, parents at Chicago’s Roberto Clemente Community Academy pulled their children from classes Thursday, according to Juanita García Avilés, a parent and chair of the Local School Council. And a security guard became ill, two educators at the school said.

“We apologize for the current temperature. Our A/C unit can not handle the building load,” said an email provided to the Tribune from Assistant Principal Tamarah Ellis, sent around 10 a.m. Thursday. Staff would have another update in 30 minutes, she wrote. Four hours later, Principal Devon Morales emailed that Chicago Public Schools facilities staff was working on the issue and that he hoped the school would receive portable AC units Friday. In the meantime, he said, “Students and staff have the ability to hydrate with water from various locations.” An educator said staff members were provided 4-ounce bottles of water and new T-shirts for those drenched in sweat.

AC units had been pulled from the building Wednesday to go to an elementary school in need, García Avilés and the educators said the school community was told. “CPS is acting irresponsibly by not dismissing staff and students. Someone is going to get hurt,” García Avilés wrote in an email to the Tribune. The West Town high school also serves as a welcome center to enroll children of newly arriving migrants in school.

A district spokesperson said the portable units had been removed Wednesday because they failed, that the air conditioning was restored in the afternoon and that the district had provided new portable units. But staff members said the heat mounted through the end of the day.

In Brighton Park, Anthony Moser said temperatures at Calmeca Fine Arts and Dual Language Academy, where his daughters attend first and third grade, have been hot since the first day of school Monday.

His daughter Lucy, 8, said Wednesday that her third-floor classroom had finally started to cool off a little in the afternoon. “It was pretty hot, though. It stayed 80 or so on the monitor,” she said.

After learning about the AC issues, Moser sent Lucy to school with a sensor that measures indoor ambient temperature. The readings he provided the Tribune were as high as 83.5 in her classroom Wednesday.

The cooling system at the Brighton Park magnet school had failed over the weekend and though it was reset Monday, the building had remained warm Tuesday, Principal Sylvia Orozco-Garcia wrote in a letter given to parents that day.

CPS’ most recent assessment of the school shows long-known issues: “Chiller 2 has been down for over a year awaiting approval to replace a burned-out control board. Chiller 1 needs to occasionally be manually reset due to a BAS (Building Automation System) software issue.” After requesting details which the Tribune provided, the district didn’t comment on the specifics of the system at Calmeca.

“We were concerned,” Moser said, when Lucy walked out of school Tuesday. “She wanted to flop down in the shade immediately. She just looked very hot — the same thing as (Monday). When I picked her up, her face was all flushed.” On the first day of the heat wave, Moser received a call to pick up Lucy’s younger sister early after the first grader complained to the school nurse about the heat. The nurse said it wasn’t the first heat-related call she’d made that day, Moser said. On Thursday, Lucy left school early as well.

Like García Avilés, as well as parents at Portage Park Elementary School — who said they learned just before the start of the school year that a long-planned cooling system repair had been postponed until spring — Moser said accountability in the procurement and maintenance process is needed, given the likelihood of more extreme heat before the district and teachers union can develop a new facilities master plan.

“Issues that would be considered a real problem in adult life are supposed to somehow be tolerable when they’re happening to children,” Moser said. And, mentioning historic problems with vendors, such as Aramark, he said maintenance and procurement is “a very unaccountable process.”

García Avilés said she’s been told the needed repairs will be pricey. But, she added, “Students deserve to be in a comfortable learning environment and CPS is failing to provide that for students. CPS must make the investment in permanently fixing both chillers.” One was deemed failing in CPS’ 2021 assessment of school, district data show.

Portage Park Elementary parent Pat Corcoran said the school had relinquished its portable ACs, given long-term plans to repair a broken chiller before school began. But due to a missing part from the vendor, the repair was pushed until spring break, and parents hustled with teachers to make sure portable ACs were back in place before school began, including a unit dropped off by a teacher’s dad who’d left work and was still wearing his auto-repair uniform, Corcoran said. “It was heartbreaking. … It’s nice, but it shouldn’t be necessary.”

School staff has also been proactive on short-term fixes to make the situation “manageable,” at one point misting the students with water, he said. But “I’d like to know that there’s action being taken on a higher level,” he said of CPS vendor accountability, rather than “passing the buck.”

“This is not how we’re supposed to start the school year,” Corcoran said. “You don’t hear about grand openings of stores being delayed for four to seven months because they don’t have the right parts. … It isn’t acceptable. I think we need to have higher standards for our public schools.”

National supply chain issues have delayed some facility repairs, CPS said, adding that the district has worked with vendors to shift cooling equipment as needed when supplies are not available to complete repairs. Before the start of the school year, CPS said it developed and implemented a plan to ensure all schools had functioning air conditioning, conducting ongoing preventive maintenance checks on all AC units and systems throughout the district and correcting any identified issues.

After requesting details which the Tribune provided, the district didn’t comment on the systems at Portage Park.

“The vast majority of our cooling systems at our more than 500 District-run schools held up (Wednesday) and in those cases when a unit or a central air system did not function as intended, our team worked quickly to respond and address the situation. The priority remained on keeping everyone safe and maintaining a comfortable classroom temperature for teaching and learning,” a CPS spokesperson said, adding that all classrooms have air-conditioning and that the district currently has 225 air conditioners in stock to replace units as needed.

At least three other Chicago public schools had temporary AC outages Wednesday, according to Waters Elementary School students and parents and a CPS spokesperson who said the district was aware of outages at Clissold and Dawes elementary schools. Waters parents said they received emails when the AC went out and when it was restored and multiple students said Wednesday that their classrooms and particularly the gym had been hot throughout the day. Clissold and Dawes students were relocated to cooler areas until the power was restored, CPS said. On Thursday the district said Richard Edwards Elementary School students were also relocated to a cooler building.

At the Board of Education meeting Thursday, a district official said CPS was working with ComEd to address the outages, adding that facilities staff will also conduct an “after-action review to see where we can make improvements.”

Given the learning loss associated with heat, Corcoran said a permanent, districtwide solution to climate controls is in order. “I’m sure that’s a huge investment. But it’s also a matter of our priorities and our values. And if we value the educational experience for our public schools, then we need to make the investment.”

At George Washington Elementary School, where classrooms with broken units relied on portable AC this week, parent Marcie Pedraza said, “They always want 100% attendance, the first day, the first week.” But, she said parents often make the judgment call: “‘If it’s too hot, I’m not sending my kid to school.’”

The Chicago Teachers Union gathered outside of the school Wednesday. A social studies teacher at neighboring George Washington High School, Lauren Bianchi, said, as co-chair of the CTU’s climate justice committee, that the union is working collaboratively with the city and CPS to develop a 10-year facilities master plan.

“Problems in our school buildings have resulted in overheated hallways, lunchrooms and gyms and, beyond that, these conditions have also put a strain on many of the temporary AC units that have been working overtime,” Bianchi said.

CTU will convene school safety committees with members of the Service Employees International Union and Unite Here, which represent other CPS staff, she said, to request an emergency safety plan, including in the event of AC outages, from administrators.

“We’re dealing with legacy issues,” said CTU President Stacy Davis Gates. “We have schools that have not been on the list for years for upgrades.” She also noted the union’s criticism of a shift in the calendar as of the 2020-21 school year, which saw school begin earlier in summer in alignment with surrounding districts, which the district said would offer consistency. This year’s start of school was two weeks before the traditional post-Labor Day opening.

After passing a “scaled-down” $155 million capital budget this year, CPS plans to release a supplemental capital budget later this year, shaped by “robust” community engagement.

Earlier in the week, CPS announced that a heat action plan was in place and that all outdoor athletic events were postponed and practices would either be canceled or moved indoors. Students have been provided the opportunity to refill water bottles throughout the day, a district statement said. Other measures planned for Wednesday and Thursday included opening windows and doors to keep air circulating; ensuring staff members and students were sufficiently hydrated; and closing shades, turning off overhead lights and limiting recess. CPS added Wednesday that the district also distributed 400,000 bottles of water to students and staff, including Safe Passage workers, crossing guards and bus aides.

At Thursday’s board meeting, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez noted concerns regarding cooling on school buses, 80% of which don’t have AC, he said.

“We work to ensure air-conditioned transportation for those students that have that requirement in their (Individualized Education Plan),” said Martinez, who added all paratransit vehicles currently have air conditioning. Bus aides closely monitored students and had water bottles aboard the bus to hydrate them as needed, the district said in a statement Wednesday.

Chicago Tribune’s Terrence Antonio James contributed.