Classrooms Still Hot and Sticky

By AARON MACKEY

Not all AC units fixed; special-ed students suffer

Days after TUSD officials glossed over air-conditioning problems at district schools, more than 100 classrooms reported malfunctions that have gone unrepaired for more than a week.

In one case, students in an elementary special-education class – some of whom wear diapers and need help using the bathroom – were forced out of their specially equipped classroom and into the school library.

Maintenance workers said Wednesday that the major air- conditioning maintenance problems in Tucson’s biggest school district had been fixed, though several teachers said they were still having problems.

According to maintenance records obtained by the Arizona Daily Star on Friday, roughly 120 classrooms, offices and other district rooms at 60 schools and other buildings were without air conditioning as of Monday.

The numbers don’t reflect repairs made this week, and the problems affect only a small percentage of Tucson Unified School District sites, district officials said.

“When you have a district with more than 5,000 classrooms, there are always going to be issues,” said TUSD spokesman Chyrl Hill Lander.

Tom Fisher, who teaches a special-education class at Robison Elementary School, said the district has failed to supply his class with federally required facilities for disabled students.

The seven students in Fisher’s class, five of whom wear diapers, have been using the library because their classroom has no air conditioning.

Fisher reported the issue two weeks ago and was told Friday that the air conditioning was scheduled to be fixed next week.

The classroom has a sink, a toilet and changing facilities for the students, which are necessary to care for the children, who are 5 to 8 years old, Fisher said. In addition to Fisher, the class is staffed by three aides.

Lacking appropriate facilities in the library, the students have to be walked back to the hot classroom every time they need to be changed or use the bathroom.

The constant back and forth splits up the aides and Fisher, which can lead to class distractions, he said.

By not having the facilities in the same room as the students, the school is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and workplace safety standards, Fisher said.

“Hygiene is really important,” he said. “We’re teaching kids how to wash their hands.”

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education, which oversees disability-access compliance issues in schools, wouldn’t comment on whether moving the students violated federal law.

“Without conducting a formal investigation, we refrain from offering advisory opinions,” according to an e-mail from Jim Bradshaw, a Washington, D.C.-based agency spokesman.

It’s not clear what’s causing the air-conditioning problem in Fisher’s classroom.

Earlier this week, TUSD officials said a majority of the problems in district classrooms were caused by roughly 200 electrical outages at TUSD sites. The fix required maintenance workers to reset the equipment.

Workers at Robison tried to reset the air conditioning in Fisher’s classroom but determined that wasn’t the problem, he said.

Fisher is sharing the library with a kindergarten class that also is having air-conditioning problems in its room.

Teachers at other schools reported similar trouble, including dead air-conditioning units in Jefferson Park Elementary School’s multipurpose room and a kindergarten classroom at Blenman Elementary School.

Steve Courter, president of TUSD’s teachers union, the Tucson Education Association, said many teachers were frustrated with the wait times and the lack of prioritizing done by district workers.

Maintenance requests are processed on a first-come, first-served basis though there are exceptions, Lander said. Priority would be given to a school if there was a widespread air-conditioning problem or to special-needs classes, she said.

Fisher’s class was not given priority because there was room to move the students to the library, Karen Bynum, another TUSD spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.

Response to air-conditioning problems is slow after budget problems, attrition and low pay dropped the number of qualified technicians on staff from 18 to five in the past two years, utilities manager Frank Urbina told the Star earlier this week.

* Contact reporter Aaron Mackey at 573-4138 or at amackey@azstarnet.com.

Originally published by AARON MACKEY, ARIZONA DAILY STAR.

(c) 2007 Arizona Daily Star. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.