POLK COUNTY, Fla. — As dozens of Polk County Schools deal with air conditioning issues, a class action grievance meeting between the Polk Education Association and the school district occurred Friday.
“You can't learn in an environment that’s 80, 85, 90 degrees. It’s just not conducive to teaching and learning,” said Polk Education Association President Stephanie Yocum.
According to the Polk Education Association, 61 Polk County schools have reported varying levels of issues with air conditioning.
The teacher's union filed a class action grievance against Polk County Public Schools last week. The formal complaint said the district violates teacher contracts to provide a comfortable and healthy environment. Since then, the district said maintenance crews have been working overtime to make repairs.
“Majority of schools are over 30 years old. Before 1970 we weren’t even putting AC into schools. It’s going to be a long process, unfortunately,” said Jason Pitts, PCPS Deputy Superintendent Chief of Staff.
The teacher's union said the grievance filed last week was to pressure PCPS, and it worked.
According to the school district, since August 1, the maintenance department has received 755 work orders for AC problems. More than 600 of those orders have been closed out.
“We’ve purchased over 500 portable AC systems to dispatch. Those will be dispatched in September. We are using all available contractors. We have approved overtime for all of our maintenance staff to work nights and weekends,” Pitts said.
In the meantime, schools can relocate students to rooms with working AC.
At Friday’s grievance meeting, the teacher’s union pressed the district to implement better policies and procedures, including preventative maintenance.
“They need policies and procedures to change in this district on how they deal with work orders, how they deal with communication when the work orders are put in, and the status. How they deal with AC in the summertime because most of our employees aren’t here during the summer,” said Yocum.
The district will provide the teachers union a timeline of where they are at with completing work orders next week.
