Air conditioning for Baltimore County schools
Ten Baltimore County schools are going to get air-conditioning next school year, unless the County Council decides to eliminate the item from the budget. After many years of battling by parents, County Executive Jim Smith has agreed to put the funding in the county budget.
Last night at the county board meeting, parent Laurie Taylor-Mitchell thanked the board for including the item in the budget, but she also suggested the county has only begun to scratch the surface in trying to get all of its schools air conditioned. She said there are about 70 schools that still need to be air conditioned in the county and it would take about a decade to get through the list, even if the district did seven every year. "What are the priorities here?" she said, calling for the county to do an analysis of what schools need it the most.
Baltimoresun.com's 
Comments
Which schools are on the list?
And frankly - not having air conditioned schools didn't hurt us.
How about all of the ridiculous amounts of electricty that those condensers will use? That is going to astronomically increase the basic operating costs of those schools. And for what? Two months out of the year?
Doesn't sound terribly cost effective to me.
Posted by: bryanintowson | April 22, 2010 10:00 AM
Which Schools?
Posted by: Patrick Johnson | April 22, 2010 10:29 AM
There are over 70 schools that do not have air conditioning. Baltimore County also has the second oldest school infrastructure in the state, after Baltimore City. It is also important to remember that school starts earlier in the year and ends later, which in Maryland means hot weather.
Three counties around us have 100% air conditioning in their schools; the other is at over 90% with just a few to go. They committed to climate control decades ago.
All administrative offices in schools are air conditioned - what does this say to teachers and children?
The following list is from 2009, provided by BCPS, of schools that do not have AC in Baltimore County - I've removed the schools approved recently for funding for AC:
Carroll Manor Elementary
Fifth District Elementary
Halstead Academy Elementary
Hampton Elementary
Lutherville Elementary
Oakleigh Elementary
Pleasant Plains Elementary
Pot Spring Elementary
Stoneleigh Elementary
Timonium Elementary
Villa Cresta Elementary
Carver Center High School
Dulaney High School
Hereford High School
Dumbarton Middle School
Hereford Middle School
Rosedale Alternative Center
Carney Elementary
Chapel Hill Elementary
Elmwood Elementary
Joppa View Elementary
Kingsville Elementary
Middlesex Elementary
Orems Elementary
Perry Hall Elementary
Seven Oaks Elementary
Victory Villa Elementary
Kenwood High School
Overlea High School
Parkville High School
Golden Ring Middle
Middle River Middle
Parkville Middle
Stemmers Run Middle
Bedford Elementary
Fort Garrison Elementary
Franklin Elementary
Owings Mills Elementary
Reisterstown Elementary
Scotts Branch Elementary
Wellwood Elementary
Franklin High
Millford Mill Academy
Pikesville High
Franklin Middle
Sudbrook Mag. Middle
Battle Grove Elementary
Bear Creek Elementary
Berkshire Elementary
Charlesmont Elementary
Chase Elementary
Colgate Elementary
Deep Creek Elementary
Dundalk Elementary
Eastwood Elementary
Grange Elementary
Hawthorne Elementary
Middleborough Elementary
Sussex Elementary
Dundalk High
Patapsco High
Deep Creek Middle
Holabird Middle
Sollers Point Tech. Mag
Catonsville Alt. Center
Arbutus Elementary
Baltimore Highlands
Catonsville Elementary
Edmonson Heights Elementary
Featherbed Lane Elementary
Hebbville Elementary
Landsdowne Elementary
Westowne Elementary
Woodmoor Elementary
Catonsville High
Landsdowne High
Woodlawn High
Arbutus Middle
Southwest Academy Middle
Posted by: Laurie Taylor-Mitchell | April 22, 2010 6:32 PM
With regard to the comment about AC only being used for two months out of the year, the weather information provided to us by AccuWeather when we were doing research on temperatures at Ridgely showed that many weeks of school days during the year are 80 degrees or higher. This is a significant amount of time when learning is severely compromised. At Hebbville Elementary, pregnant teachers fainted in classrooms ini 2008 from the heat. At Westowne Elementary, teachers have to teach with the windows wide open in the winter because classrooms are in the 80s. Bad climate control costs a lot more in the long run than efficient climate control for heating and cooling, let alone alleviating human misery.
Posted by: Laurie Taylor-Mitchell | April 22, 2010 6:36 PM
Way to bring this to the community's attention, Liz! It's enough of a challenge paying attention in school WITHOUT melting. ;)
Laurie (in the comments) also has an excellent point: "Bad climate control costs a lot more in the long run than efficient climate control for heating and cooling, let alone alleviating human misery."
And there is ANOTHER major point to consider. HVAC is generally a quality local job, and as technology marches forward there will be no shortage of work in replacing old, inefficient systems with new, hyper-efficient heating and air conditioning equipment.
Some of the kids in these schools will benefit greatly in a few years from career training in this type of (relatively) consistent, local trade.
We've got a great program at NA Trade Schools for HVAC.
Posted by: NA Trade HVAC Schools | April 30, 2010 10:22 AM
Not only are the students and teachers affected by the uncontrolled climate but the technology put into the schools suffer from the heat. Technology creates it's own heat and add that to a room that is not cooled and you get problems such as computers overheating, internet switches not working properly because of overheating and other various affects.
Posted by: Terri Grimes | May 1, 2010 8:56 PM
My concerns have always been for our environmentally senstive children. The nurse's office is air conditioned however it will not hold all the asthma children as well as those who are over heated. The computer Labs must be air conditioned because and I quote " it isn't healthy for those commputers to be in all this heat.." excuse me, what about the children at those computers. When it is more important to keep the machinery in the school cooled than it is the children something is very wrong. When my children were in this school there was no a/c however the windows were larger and I gave their teachers fans for their rooms. They replaced those windows with smaller tilt in windows. Gobal warming is not going away, the temperatures are continuing to rise. There is no learning going on in a classroom where the temperature is over 80 degrees. Some of our classrooms the past few days have had temps as high as 90 degrees. Something need to be done.
Posted by: Fran | June 1, 2011 3:41 PM