Air conditioning

Question: Why is it that at the high school you don't have the air conditioning on? My daughter says that some of the rooms upstairs feels like they are 90 degrees. After getting all these grants and the budget passing, I would think we could afford to run the air.

Answer: Thank you for the question! First, regarding grants, grant funds must be used to pay for specific programs -- they can't be used to supplement regular district operating costs (click here for more details). As for the budget passing last week, that's the budget for the 2013-14 school year, which begins July 1, and therefore doesn't influence whether the air conditioner runs during the current school year.

Now, to the heart of your question. Turning on the air conditioner at the high school is nothing like turning on the air conditioner at your home. The 40-ton unit that sits on the roof above the high school media center takes two full days to get up and running at full capacity, and it costs a lot of money every time we turn it on and off. In fact, it costs more than $11,000 to run the air conditioner at the high school for a month.