DAVENPORT, Fla. — The Polk Education Association has filed a class action grievance against Polk County Public Schools.
The formal complaint alleges issues with air conditioners at 15 schools, including Davenport School of the Arts.
The union held a press conference outside the school in Davenport on Thursday.
"Instead of being filled with excitement, we have been literally 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 speediness that they need to fix these at," said Stephanie Yocum, president of the Polk Education Association.
The complaint stated, "Broken AC units are not being repaired fast enough to provide a comfortable and healthy working and learning environment."
The union also requests the school district set thermostats to a minimum of 68°F.
Yocum said the district controls thermostats and sets the temperature to 72°F.
"The district is trying to uniform temperatures throughout the county at 72°F," said Yocum. "We had faulty thermostats that were saying they were reading at 72°F, yet the classrooms were 80°F to 85°F."
Yocum said Davenport School of the Arts has had issues since spring.
"We have everywhere from AC just being completely broken, and then the answer is, well, the work order is in, but we don't have the parts to fix it, or the work order is in, we might have the parts, but you're on the list because we don't have enough people to actually come out and fix it," said Yocum.
Yocum said the schools impacted include: North Lakeland Elementary School, Blake Academy, Lake Gibson Middle School, Spessard Holland Elementary, Socrum Elementary School, Davenport School of the Arts, Horizon Elementary School, George Jenkins High School, Sandhill Elementary School, Alturus Elementary School, Traviss Technical College, Bartow Middle School, Crystal Lake Middle School Boswell Elementary School, and Kathleen Elementary School.
Students go back to school on Aug. 11.
ABC Action News reached out to the district and their response is below.
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.
