JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Duval County Public Schools is addressing an avalanche of air conditioning issues that have been plaguing teachers and students since the start of the school year.
In just the past 11 days, Duval County Public Schools has received 1,300 calls for service related to air conditioning problems at local schools.
“We know it’s difficult to ask people to be understanding when temperatures outside are above 100 degrees. Understanding does not cool a classroom and our students and staff deserve better,” said DCPS Chief Operating Officer Jim Culbert during a news conference Friday afternoon.
Culbert reported as of Friday morning, fewer than six classrooms were without AC and no schools are experiencing major outages.
“This week has gotten better every single day.,” said Culbert.
He said this year the district tried to prepare by turning on HVAC units in schools two weeks earlier than usual.
But he argued it wasn’t enough to prepare the systems for the surge of students entering classrooms on day one - A strain on the system made worse by scorching temps and severe storms the county has experienced this month.
“Anytime you’re operating a system at 100 percent, that’s the chance of when it’s gonna fail and that’s what we’ve seen,” said Culbert.
Culbert said HVAC systems have suffered in recent years due to a limited maintenance budget of just $17 million.
This year, though, Culbert explained the district set aside $40 million for maintenance and is putting HVAC systems at the top of the priority list.
The district is preparing a comprehensive evaluation of all chillers and cooling towers to commence in the coming days.
And starting this year, six to eight schools will be selected for full replacement of their HVAC systems each school year.
“Now, if there’s another school that becomes available this year and we absolutely know that we need to go out and fix it, the Superintendent has committed that we will have the funds to take care of these schools that are having issues with their AC units,” said Culbert.
Looking ahead to next year, Culbert said the district plans to put aside $50 million for maintenance.>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
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