Too Hot to Learn, or Teach?

Amid global warming, schools seek ways to cool classrooms

Learning can be challenging enough without a sweltering classroom.

Many students face this situation, as global warming has forced schools locally and worldwide to find ways to cool buildings during warmer months. In New York, it has inspired a legislative proposal to cap classroom temperatures.

Last week in Beacon, voters overwhelmingly approved a $50 million capital plan, a quarter of which will pay for HVAC upgrades that include “cooling centers” at Rombout Middle School and the district’s four elementary schools, said Matt Landahl, the superintendent.

The cooling centers will be larger spaces such as cafeterias and gyms that can be used to “address the hazards associated with high heat days, wildfire smoke and periods with high cases of infectious disease,” he said.

Beacon High School, which opened in 2002, is air-conditioned, unlike 40 percent of schools nationwide that need new HVAC systems, according to the General Accounting Office in Washington D.C. 

Hot classrooms hinder learning, Landahl said. “The first week of the 2023-24 school year [in September] was very hot and it negatively impacted our elementary school students and staff who have limited access to air conditioning,” he said.

“High heat” days are increasing locally.  Ninety-degree days in the Hudson Valley have grown from about 10 a year in the 1970s to 30 or more today, according to data compiled by the New York State Water Resources Institute at Cornell University. By 2050, the number is projected to rise to 50.

Philip Benante, the superintendent at Haldane, said that most district classrooms have no air conditioning and that June and September can be uncomfortable, especially on the top floors. When the temperature approached 90 degrees on May 21, which was Election Day for the school board and budget, many classroom windows were open.

“There is a need for air conditioning in our buildings, but the essential questions are at what cost and through what method,” Benante said. The district is reviewing applications from engineering firms to do an energy-use analysis in anticipation of a new HVAC system. 

Haldane is developing a capital plan that it will present to voters, probably in the fall. The first phase, projected to cost $35.7 million and trigger a 10.5 percent tax hike, included $7.1 million to upgrade the HVAC system and add air conditioning to the main school building, which houses the elementary and middle schools. There was also $2.8 million to add AC to the high school.

After the proposed HVAC system stirred criticism for relying on fossil fuels, officials removed it and the high school AC from Phase 1, dropping the total cost to $29.3 million and the potential tax increase to 8.22 percent. But both will be part of Phase 2, officials say.

In the Garrison district, the school is air conditioned thanks to the $10 million capital improvement program approved by voters in 2019 and completed in 2022, which included $2.7 million to renovate the HVAC system. Carl Albano, the interim superintendent, said that the electric system has systems to circulate fresh air. “We’re in a healthier environment,” he said. “The air conditioning, I believe, makes a difference.”

State Sen. James Skoufis, a Democrat from Cornwall, in Orange County, is the lead sponsor (and Sen. Rob Rolison, a Republican whose district includes the Highlands, is a co-sponsor) of legislation requiring classrooms to be evacuated if their temperature exceeds 87 degrees. Classrooms that hit 82 degrees would require fans, AC window units or open windows.

“Over the past several years, I have tried to build awareness of this issue,” Skoufis said. “We’re at a tipping point.”

Melinda Person, president of New York State United Teachers, representing 600,000 educators, noted that “even animal shelters have maximum heat limits. Our schools do not, and it is disrespectful to our students and educators. When schools are too hot, students can’t learn, and teachers can’t teach.”