TAMPA, Fla. — Teams of workers have moved into schools to begin the extensive work of overhauling and replacing air conditioning systems now that students, teachers and staff are off for summer break.
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY NEWS | The latest headlines from Hillsborough County
Twenty-one schools will get relief this summer thanks to taxpayers who approved the half-penny sales tax back in November, according to Hillsborough County Schools.
“It’s constantly breaking down, you’re constantly worried about it, it’s constantly a threat,” said Adam Boudreaux, the Vice President for Foresight. That company is doing work on two of the schools.
Those schools include:
- Alonso HS
- Benito MS
- Blake HS
- Burnett MS
- Clark ES
- Colson ES
- Dickenson ES
- Dunbar ES
- Durant HS
- Folsom ES
- Knights ES
- Lincoln ES
- Lithia Springs ES
- Lowry ES
- Riverview HS
- Schwarzkopf ES
- Sickles HS
- Walden Lake ES
- Walker MS
- Wharton HS
- Woodbridge ES
Heather Holloway says Charlie Walker Middle Magnet School has been dealing with major AC issues all three years she’s been here.
“The parents, they are frustrated that their kids are uncomfortable for 8 to 9 hours a day at school,” she said.
Constant sweating puts a damper on their focus and concentration.
“If you were at work and you’re sitting in a hot office with cinder-block walls and your perspiring but yet you’re expected to achieve at your highest level, it’s very very difficult and very uncomfortable,” she said.
Holloway says teachers have moved anything that could into one of the only rooms that has a temporary AC unit pumping cold air through holes in a doorway.
“Which seems to work great, because it feels OK, but not as good as it’s going to feel in the Fall,” she laughed.
That's why Holloway is excited for the kids to come back even though summer has just begun.
“We’re going to be cool at school that’s for sure,” she said.
Over the next 10 years, funds from the half-penny sales tax will overhaul or replace A/C systems at 203 schools.
Each summer, Hillsborough County Schools expects to complete approximately 20 major school air conditioning projects as the funds are generated by sales across the county.
A total of 32 local companies, design professionals and construction companies, will be working on the twenty-one school air conditioning projects this summer.
The schools getting new ACs this summer are:
- Alonso HS
- Benito MS
- Blake HS
- Burnett MS
- Clark ES
- Colson ES
- Dickenson ES
- Dunbar ES
- Durant HS
- Folsom ES
- Knights ES
- Lincoln ES
- Lithia Springs ES
- Lowry ES
- Riverview HS
- Schwarzkopf ES
- Sickles HS
- Walden Lake ES
- Walker MS
- Wharton HS
- Woodbridge ES
