Lee Dulgeroff spoke at Mission Bay High School this week regarding the air conditioning and modernization plans for the San Diego coastal schools.
Dulgeroff, the chief facilities planning and construction officer for San Diego Unified School District, informed parents and members of the Mission Bay Cluster that the air conditioning projects were being pushed up and the wheels were beginning to turn. With $240 million, all schools in the district should be fully air conditioned in the next two and a half years.
According to Dulgeroff, Pacific Beach Middle and Mission Bay High should expect construction for air conditioning to begin in the fall of 2017. Construction is planned to occur from 3 p.m. to midnight so not to completely disrupt the students’ learning environment.
The San Diego Unified School District is the second largest school district in the state of California and majority of the schools do not have air conditioning. At the start of the 2015-2016 school year, students and teachers around San Diego were reporting sitting in classrooms that had reached 90 degrees.
“My concern is that people have a physiological response to heat,” Dulgeroff said. “This decreases the health of students and staff as well as the students learning efficiency.”
According to Dulgeroff, there was a planning board years ago, when the weather was far less extreme, that decided that when new school buildings were constructed air conditioning was not to be built in. Years later both old and new construction are taking a hit from climate change and the students and teachers are the ones dealing with the consequences.
In November, according to Dulgeroff, School Board president Dr. Michael McQuary decided that because of the increase in heat waves hitting the zone one coastal cluster of schools, something needed to be done sooner rather than later.
While parents and administrators seemed excited about the plan being pushed ahead of schedule, they were left with other concerns.
In 2008 voters approved a modernization and revitalization plan for all schools in the San Diego Unified School district. The average age of buildings in the district is 43 years and the board of education determined there was a need for major upgrades around the district. The entire revitalization plan is a 23 year program, but with increased pressure by the parents and administrators, the board has decided to accelerate the air conditioning plans.
Since 2008, the weather in San Diego has changed. Heat and humidity have moved west eliminating the solution of escaping the heat by heading to the coast. The schools along the coast are no longer significantly cooler than those inland simply due to their location. The plan to solve this increase in heat is to install air conditioning in all schools throughout San Diego. The problem lies in funding.
The coastal schools did not account for new air conditioning units in their revitalization budgets. This means that funding for certain crucial projects on coastal campuses may have to be cut in order to cool the classrooms down.
This choice concerned the principals and vice principals present at the cluster meeting. Many of their schools are in need of air conditioning but also require extensive upgrades to buildings, athletic departments and parking lots. They fear having to pick one necessary project over another.
Dulgeroff ended his talk by saying he welcomed all ideas and comments about project and budget planning and that he sees the project being a success.
“I will work with each one of you so we can do everything each school wants to do,” Dulgeroff said. “We may need to move things around but I assure you everything will get done.”