WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — It's the first day of school for students in Polk County, but it's also the opening day for a new school in Winter Haven.
South Pointe Elementary opened its doors to students Friday morning. The school can hold about a thousand students; right now, there are 500 kids enrolled.
The brand-new school is about 127,000 square feet and has a modern look; it cost $47 million.
Principal Dart Meyers joined ABC Action News live before students showed up Friday morning. He explained there are challenges that come with opening a new school, but his staff are prepared.
“There is going to be a lot of fluid and flexibility. We’re going to have to work together because sometimes you don’t know how it’s going to work until you implement it, and we just make those tweaks and changes,” Meyers said.
The principal explained that South Pointe Elementary opened to alleviate overcrowding at other Winter Haven schools.
“We got Garden Grove and Pinewood in the Winter Haven area overcrowded and obviously trying to reduce their numbers cause they’re overcapacity. This school was built to help alleviate those issues,” Meyers said.
While it is an exciting day for Polk County students, there are major concerns with air conditioning units in several schools.
Thursday, the Polk Education Association filed a class action grievance with the school district, which claims at least 15 schools across the county are having trouble with AC units.
“Instead of being filled with excitement, we have literally been burning up in our buildings with AC problems and AC units being broken and the district being either unwilling or unable to fix these at the speediest that they need to fix these at," Stephanie Yocum, the President of the Polk Education Association, said.
The Polk County School District sent a statement that said:
The nation is currently experiencing a significant heat wave. As a result, this is placing extreme pressure on Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) resources.
The severe weather is impacting all of us — residences, businesses and schools. Every summer, just before school begins, we typically receive an influx of work orders for A/C issues as staff return to schools. This has been magnified by the ongoing heat wave.
PCPS is taking several steps to attack these issues:
HVAC technicians and additional teams of maintenance staff are being deployed to schools to assess and prioritize work orders.
All available portable A/C systems are being deployed from our inventory and will be used first in critical areas, such as portables and interior classrooms.
We are authorizing overtime pay for staff to handle work orders, including on nights and weekends.
PCPS-contracted vendors will be assisting with larger projects such as installing new A/C units and duct work.
We are constantly working to upgrade the HVAC equipment in our schools. Approximately $6 million has been spent to purchase more than 500 new A/C units. Installation is taking place as soon as possible.
Students in classrooms without working A/C will be relocated to other areas on campus until fixes are made.
We appreciate the patience and understanding of our staff and families as we work to address these issues as quickly as possible.
