In a school 90 years old it’s normal to experience an occasional outage of air conditioning, but around Hillsborough County, schools are faced with the issue of classrooms hotter than 80 degrees during the already unbearable Florida summer heat.

Classrooms are either too hot or too cold and students are unable to feel comfortable, which diminishes their motivation to do school work. Students in hot classrooms tend to be lethargic as they are hit with symptoms of heat
exhaustion.

Our dress code policy requires girls to cover their shoulders, but in warm classes they feel conflicted over “distracting boys” and feeling comfortable enough to focus during class.

Teachers in classrooms that have had no air conditioning all day have also lost motivation; in order to beat the heat they’ve moved their classrooms to the lunchroom. But seeking colder air leads to a change of lesson plans because teachers are unable to use PowerPoints or other aids they could use in their classrooms.

For example, Katherine Bohan opted for her Macroeconomics class to move into the cafeteria for the day, but lost valuable instruction time due to the
inability of the cafeteria to provide a classroom environment.

When attending school students
shouldn’t have to worry about the conditions
of their classrooms.

Students after physical education classes may return to their classes and hope that they’ll have a cool down after their exercise, but they are met with classes with stiff, unwelcoming air. After running outside HOPE students are particularly sweaty and stinky leaving their teachers uncomfortable dealing with their stench.

The issue has even reached the point that students have had to take their SAT in a classroom without air conditioning. Many students pay for their testing and being assigned a testing room without air conditioning could alter their scores negatively due to the distraction, and even could be reported to college board as an unfit testing room condition.

Although, portable air conditioning units have been utilized in some classes as a solution to cool down the room, the noise the units make also lead to distracted students who cannot hear their teachers across the classroom.

When attending school students shouldn’t have to worry about the conditions of their classrooms, the general disrepair of schools across Hillsborough county is a major issue and according to the Tampa Bay Times the district has received up to 5,600 requests to repair air-conditioning units.

The U.S. Department of Labor has regulations that state the maximum temperature for indoor workplaces is 76 degrees Fahrenheit, but across
Hillsborough county it has been reported that classrooms have reached up to 81.8 degrees Fahrenheit.

The district needs to solve their budget issues in order to provide a positive learning environment for students, before the lack of air-conditioning leads to students doing poorly in classes and on standardized tests.