Another hot spring for some Baltimore County schools
Despite the best efforts of parents who lobbied politicians to put money in the budget this year for air conditioning for Ridgely Middle, it will be September before the students and faculty there will feel any cool breeze.
It isn't clear what has gone wrong, according to Julie Sugar, the former PTA president at Ridgely. She says that everything seemed to be on schedule for the school to have the chillers installed by spring. The bids went over the course of the fall for several schools and were voted on by the board. Ten schools are supposed to get air-conditioning this year, and several contracts have been approved by the board. The board approved Ridgely's contract in January.
Sugar said parents were "shocked" when they learned in the past week that installation might not be finished until September because temperatures have been over 100 on some days. "We are very confused. We have asked a lot of people questions," she said.
Charles Herndon, a spokesman for the school system, said "it was a timing issue."
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Comments
Yes, Charles Herndon, it IS a timing issue. BCPS is VERY LATE in getting that air conditioning installed! What we want to know is, who dropped the ball?
Posted by: Towson Parent | March 26, 2011 7:13 PM
Once again, BCPS gets all of us excited that they have finally given us what we've been begging them for for years yet they're going to make us wait until the last possible second before the students are able to learn in a comfortable environment. There is no doubt in my mind that the project will FINALLY be finished the day that the weather gets cool next fall. We will be suffering through another spring and another fall (technically another summer since fall doesn't start until the end of Sept.) once again. Thanks, BCPS.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 28, 2011 1:32 PM
At Sudbrook Magnet Middle School, the pipes are all in place, but the county ran out of money and never completed the air conditioning install. My son sits in classrooms the read over 100 degrees on some days. How can the kids learn like that???
Posted by: 20yearveteran | April 2, 2011 9:47 AM