Many parents are irate about their children having to withstand the heat in a Mississauga catholic school where air conditioning is limited.
As the calendar turned from summer to fall, parts of southern Ontario were put under a heat warning, with temperatures exceeding 30 C from Monday, Sept. 25 to Wednesday, Sept. 27.
Danielle Levesque spoke on behalf of a number of parents of children from St. Philip Elementary School in Mississauga, one of the many schools that only have partial air conditioning.
Levesque said children have come home from school sick as a result of being inside hot classrooms for most of the day.
They go outside to the heat and come into the heat, and that’s not healthy,” said Levesque, whose daughter Isabella — a Grade 1 student at St. Philip — developed a heat rash over the past several days.
The heat wave may be over, but for the parents at St. Philip, the situation has become escalated; they’ve reached out to Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB) trustee Bruno Iannica, the Ministry of Health and Mississauga East-Cooksville MPP Dipika Damerla for assistance in acquiring the funds to invest in air conditioning for classrooms.
They have a meeting scheduled with Damerla on Wednesday, Oct. 11, by which time they hope to have gathered enough signatures on a petition they’re passing around to make their case.
“If there’s A/C in the library and office, (the school is) obviously equipped for air conditioning,” Levesque said.
“I want to know where that money is going to; how much they were allotted for every school; and how come the new schools have it, but they’re not upgrading the schools that don’t have it and giving the kids a comfortable place to learn.”
Daniel Del Bianco, DPCDSB’s superintendent of planning and operations, has said equipping older schools with air conditioning isn’t all that simple.
He says the board’s 149 schools currently have a backlog of $225 million in renewal needs, while the board is funded $23 million annually for operational maintenance and renewal purposes.
Del Bianco went on to explain that there’s a challenge in addressing the needs of 65 schools that were constructed before 2000, when air conditioning wasn’t standardized by the board of trustees.
To install full air conditioning in those 65 schools would cost between $35 million and $40 million.
“That’s almost two years’ worth of full funding which we’d address just for air conditioning,” Del Bianco said. “One, I don’t believe (it) is allowed; and two, you have other large components of buildings you can’t let fail.”
Many other school boards face similar issues. For example, only 125 of the Toronto District School Board’s 584 schools are fully air-conditioned.
Del Bianco said the installation can be complex and intrusive. In some cases, it can take between six and 12 months to do properly, and there are ongoing operational costs to consider.
The DPCDSB is looking for alternatives such as cooling stations, and in November, they will present findings from a feasibility study to the board of trustees.
Board spokesperson Bruce Campbell said each school has hot weather guidelines to follow. In St. Philip’s case, Campbell said students are advised to keep water bottles in their desk to stay hydrated throughout the day.
In addition, classes are cycled through air-conditioned areas of the school, such as the library, while students are kept indoors (no outdoor recess or lunch) with the lights kept down low.
Campbell also said teachers are advised to monitor students for any signs of heat stress, but Levesque didn’t feel that was enough.
She said several parents have been taking their children out of the school during the heat-stricken days, which Campbell said parents always have the option to do if they’re concerned.
As the calendar turned from summer to fall, parts of southern Ontario were put under a heat warning, with temperatures exceeding 30 C from Monday, Sept. 25 to Wednesday, Sept. 27.
Danielle Levesque spoke on behalf of a number of parents of children from St. Philip Elementary School in Mississauga, one of the many schools that only have partial air conditioning.
Levesque said children have come home from school sick as a result of being inside hot classrooms for most of the day.
They go outside to the heat and come into the heat, and that’s not healthy,” said Levesque, whose daughter Isabella — a Grade 1 student at St. Philip — developed a heat rash over the past several days.
The heat wave may be over, but for the parents at St. Philip, the situation has become escalated; they’ve reached out to Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB) trustee Bruno Iannica, the Ministry of Health and Mississauga East-Cooksville MPP Dipika Damerla for assistance in acquiring the funds to invest in air conditioning for classrooms.
They have a meeting scheduled with Damerla on Wednesday, Oct. 11, by which time they hope to have gathered enough signatures on a petition they’re passing around to make their case.
“If there’s A/C in the library and office, (the school is) obviously equipped for air conditioning,” Levesque said.
“I want to know where that money is going to; how much they were allotted for every school; and how come the new schools have it, but they’re not upgrading the schools that don’t have it and giving the kids a comfortable place to learn.”
Daniel Del Bianco, DPCDSB’s superintendent of planning and operations, has said equipping older schools with air conditioning isn’t all that simple.
He says the board’s 149 schools currently have a backlog of $225 million in renewal needs, while the board is funded $23 million annually for operational maintenance and renewal purposes.
Del Bianco went on to explain that there’s a challenge in addressing the needs of 65 schools that were constructed before 2000, when air conditioning wasn’t standardized by the board of trustees.
To install full air conditioning in those 65 schools would cost between $35 million and $40 million.
“That’s almost two years’ worth of full funding which we’d address just for air conditioning,” Del Bianco said. “One, I don’t believe (it) is allowed; and two, you have other large components of buildings you can’t let fail.”
Many other school boards face similar issues. For example, only 125 of the Toronto District School Board’s 584 schools are fully air-conditioned.
Del Bianco said the installation can be complex and intrusive. In some cases, it can take between six and 12 months to do properly, and there are ongoing operational costs to consider.
The DPCDSB is looking for alternatives such as cooling stations, and in November, they will present findings from a feasibility study to the board of trustees.
Board spokesperson Bruce Campbell said each school has hot weather guidelines to follow. In St. Philip’s case, Campbell said students are advised to keep water bottles in their desk to stay hydrated throughout the day.
In addition, classes are cycled through air-conditioned areas of the school, such as the library, while students are kept indoors (no outdoor recess or lunch) with the lights kept down low.
Campbell also said teachers are advised to monitor students for any signs of heat stress, but Levesque didn’t feel that was enough.
She said several parents have been taking their children out of the school during the heat-stricken days, which Campbell said parents always have the option to do if they’re concerned.
No comments:
Post a Comment