On his last day of school, Liam McCarthy had to go home because the air conditioning at his Ada Merritt K-8 classroom was not working.
“It produces hotter air,” said Liam, a third grade student. “It feels like exhaust from a truck but then somebody breathing on your neck. And then the sun is on you.”
His mother, Robyn McCarthy, is livid over what she described as an ongoing issue that does not seem to have a resolution.
“I think it’s been an issue at the school for a pretty long time,” said Robyn McCarthy, who added the school’s air conditioning broke a couple times at the end of the school year last year.
The Hurricane season is on. Our meteorologists are ready. Sign up for the NBC 6 Weather newsletter to get the latest forecast in your inbox.
As for this school year, Robyn McCarthy said: “I want to say it’s broken nine times in the past six or seven weeks and it broke today on the last day of school.”
Robyn McCarthy and other parents have been told a fix is coming and the budget has been approved for a new air conditioning.
“Mostly I’m worried about the staff, I’m worried about the teachers. I’m worried about the students because they can’t learn when they’re uncomfortable because it’s been brutal,” she said.
Local
Nadia Perez, another concerned parent, said her two daughters who attend the school have also complained about lack of air conditioning in their classrooms.
“Of course, it concerns me because as a parent, one assumes kids are okay at school and not dealing with this issue,” Perez told NBC 6 in Spanish.
Perez added at times her daughters don’t want to go to school and the lack of air conditioning sometimes lasts more than a day.
Concerned parents want to know the age of the air conditioner, why it keeps breaking and if the school is really on the list of for a new system.
“Why hasn’t this been fixed? That’s dangerous,” Robyn McCarthy said.
NBC 6 posed those questions to Miami-Dade School Board Chair Mari Tere Rojas, who by way of a spokesperson said the chillers had been installed during the 2002-2003 fiscal year, making them more than 20 years old.
“We have been having power fluctuation issues at the site, resulting in several malfunctions of the chiller plant. Our plan is to install electrical data loggers to monitor the power source and determine a resolution,” Rojas said in the statement.
Rojas said she requested an expeditious response from the district’s maintenance operations and school facilities. Rojas confirmed a chiller plant replacement order will be placed at the start of the new fiscal year in July 2024 and repairs are expected to be completed prior to the state of the summer school.
“School operations have procedures that provide for students to be moved to other areas, if needed, to ensure their safety and comfort,” Rojas added.
