Schools Work on Cooling Kids

By Shari Chaney Griffin, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo.

Sep. 6–Talk about air conditioning school buildings likely will cool off as temperatures do the same.

But it was a hot topic last month as many students headed back to classrooms heated by outside temperatures in the high 80s and higher.

Air conditioning is expensive, but as schools start earlier in August, some people say it’s needed.

Two of the area’s five largest school districts have all buildings air-conditioned — Falcon School District 49 and Harrison School District 2.

D-49 typically has the area’s earliest first day of school.

In Widefield School District 3, about half of the district’s 16 schools are air-conditioned. Academy School District 20 has four schools without air conditioning or an evaporative cooling system.

And when Colorado Springs School District 11 finishes several bond projects that include new cooling systems, all but 19 of the district’s 57 schools will have at least partial cooling systems.

Once parents hear the cost of adding air conditioning, they understand why not all buildings have a cooling system, said Nanette Anderson, D-20 spokeswoman.

Widefield officials would like to cool more schools, Director of Communications James Drew said, but many need upgrades to their power systems before air conditioning — or another cooling system — could be added.

The district received a $1.2 million grant from the Colorado Department of Education to do asbestos abatement and power upgrades.

There’s no doubt it can be hot in schools, Drew said, and staff members do what they can — provide water for students, open windows and bring fans.

Anderson noted some parents talk of starting school after Labor Day, but "Parents also want to be out at Memorial Day" and state law dictates a minimum number of hours students must be in class.

Also, the Colorado Student Assessment Program testing window is outlined in state law, and schools want as many days as possible before students take the tests.

"We need those days of instruction," Drew said.

Parent Tonja Olive said she purchased fans for her son’s classroom at Taylor Elementary in D-11. Not every parent can do that, she said.

She said she’d like to hear more discussions about what can be done to get cooling systems into all schools.

So would D-11 board member Charlie Bobbitt.

"The temperatures of some of the rooms are just outrageous," Bobbitt said.

Nine D-11 schools added cooling systems this summer as part of the recently passed bond. Work continues on a system at Mitchell High School.

Before the recent projects, 21 D-11 schools had air conditioning in at least part of the building.

Another seven schools will add cooling systems in 2008 and 2009, D-11 officials said, leaving 19 schools without air conditioning systems.

Cooling could be added to those schools if money is available.

That includes Twain Elementary School, which could adopt a school year that extends into June beginning in 2008-09.

Ivywild Elementary School will try the longer school year this year, but Principal Libby Bailey isn’t worried about heat in June.

"May and into June, when I’m working here, it’s never as hot as it is now," Bailey said.

During August school days, she said, the staff opens doors and windows, taking advantage of breezes.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0394 or shari.griffin@gazette.com

COOL SCHOOLS

Schools that have some kind of air conditioning, by district: Falcon District 49: All buildings Harrison District 2: All buildings Widefield District 3: About half of 16 buildings Academy District 20: 24 of 28 schools Colorado Springs District 11: 30 of 57 schools

Mitchell students are ICE COLD

These ice cubes are too big for your Big Gulp.

But they’ll be just the right size to cool a high school.

At Mitchell High School, 12 tanks roughly 8 feet tall and more than 6 feet in diameter sit behind a wall outside the school.

When the "chill water mechanical cooling system" is complete — likely in October — the tanks will be full of water that can be frozen at night, then "we use that ice to cool the building during the day," said project manager Rick LaRose.

The system will freeze the water in the tanks at night when the cost of electricity is lower. During the day, water will circulate through the ice, then through pipes throughout the school, cooling the air as it goes.

The typical machinery that would need to run to make the water cool isn’t needed, LaRose said, or is needed less.

The water in the tanks can be frozen again and again.

The unusual system means if only a portion of the school needs to be cooled — such as the gymnasium for a sporting event — the water flowing through the ice might be enough to cool the area and the other machinery might not have to run at all.

That means an energy savings for the district, LaRose said.

D-11′s Director of Facilities Mike Maloney said the technology is not new, but isn’t used much in Colorado.

It’s more common in the eastern United States, said Energy Manger Thomas Fernandez, where electricity rates are much higher.

When considering whether to use a traditional system or something different, Fernandez said district officials looked the short-term and long-term costs, as well as energy consumption and savings.

"We let those numbers tell us if it’s a prudent thing to do," he said.

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