Dear Families and Staff,  

 

We have received many emails from staff and families alike about the record-breaking heat we have experienced over the last week and how uncomfortable it has made our schools.  Our message is admittedly a bit long, but we wanted to cover a good bit of ground given the impact this heatwave has had on schools since last week. 

 

I want to say from the very start that we understand it has been hot and hit many of our classrooms the hardest. We understand the duration of the heat has made teaching and learning very difficult. And we are very grateful for the hard work of AUSD staff – including teachers, office staff, custodians, and maintenance workers – during this extended heat wave. Our students have persevered despite the heavy heat as well, though many were impacted. We know it has been tough on everyone. 

 

Temperatures are supposed to cool over the next several days, but I want to make sure that families and staff both understand how AUSD responds to excessive heat, what the constraints of our responses have been, and what options we are exploring for the future. 

 

Monitoring “Heat Risk” 

 AUSD follows public health guidelines on responding to excessive heat. Under those guidelines, districts need to monitor the National Weather Service's "Heat Risk Forecast," which considers not only the local temperature but other conditions, including how unusual the heat is for the location and time of year, how long the heat will last, and other heat illness data. Based on that, schools make adjustments to their operations to keep students and staff as cool as possible.  

 

Those guidelines are fairly clear, and they include recommendations such as providing water breaks and cancelling outdoor activities. But the high temperatures of the last week, combined with the age of many of our facilities, adds some barriers and complexity.  

 

Only about 50 percent of AUSD classrooms have air conditioning; those that do not are primarily located in older buildings with electrical systems that currently cannot accommodate additional loads. That means bringing students indoors doesn’t always provide relief, and short-term measures, such as moving in portable air conditioners, are simply not viable, due to both the strain that would put on many of our current electrical systems, and the need to modify classrooms to safely create exhaust for those portable units.  

 

Short Term  

While we procured and distributed 3-foot industrial fans at some sites today, we view those as temporary improvements, and nothing approaching full solutions. 

 

Box fans are distributed at each school site currently. While their impact can be limited, we nonetheless will inventory this to ensure those classrooms that need them most are prioritized.  

 

Another thing we are confirming is how many actual alternative or “cooler” locations exist at each school to move staff and students into when heat is excessive. This can vary from school to school depending on the size and layout and becomes a bigger challenge when things like PE and other programming needs to move indoors on extremely hot days. 

 

The probability of this heating trend continuing looks high and therefore will require the development of a longer-term, more comprehensive heat mitigation strategy. 

 

We will start that exploration publicly with our Board of Education on October

22.  

 

Possible long-term options 

Going forward, all new AUSD buildings will include centralized air conditioning as they are constructed.

 

Unfortunately, updating electrical systems to add central air conditioning to existing buildings would likely be deeply, and in some cases prohibitively expensive. Just this summer, for instance, installing HVAC units in 12 classrooms at our preschool (7 of which are completed) will cost $4 million, with the majority of that cost being driven by the electric upgrades that were necessary to install AC. 

 

This is not to say we do not have other options. Our team is exploring multiple possibilities. First, the viability of installing multiple ceiling fans in classrooms that have no air conditioning.  Secondly, we are also exploring the option of installing "split-level" air conditioning in some classrooms and potentially putting in more trees or other shade near our facilities to provide more cover.

 

These three concepts will be looked at over the next few months as we develop a heat mitigation strategy for our classrooms that currently have no air conditioning. 

 

Analysis and Decisions  

If these options prove viable, we will likely need to decide which option is best for each classroom on a case-by-case basis, looking at such factors as sun exposure and available electrical infrastructure. A larger heat mitigation strategy would likely need to be implemented in a graduated way prioritizing classrooms most impacted.  

 

Due to the projected expense, we will also have to consider if some currently scheduled facilities projects would need to be canceled or delayed, or if there were sizeable reductions, or repurposing of funds we could make in other areas to finance the expanded cooling measures that we predict will grow increasingly necessary over time.  

 

We plan to have an initial conversation about these larger options, and their relative costs and benefits, with the Board of Education at a meeting on October 22. 

 

Again, we understand how very hot it has been and how difficult it has been to hold school for the last week.  

 

Historically Alameda has enjoyed a temperate climate with only about a dozen hot days per year. We know this number could very well increase as the effects of climate change accelerate, and we are committed to addressing that to the best of our ability.

 

Improvement in this area will not be simple, but there is a path forward that we can begin moving down right away.  

  

Pasquale Scuderi

Superintendent

Alameda Unified School District