Hot times in the classroom

If you're going back to school in the state's largest school district next week, be warned: It's going to be hot. And not just outside.

Fifteen of 90 Jordan District schools are not air-conditioned.

The same goes for about 50 of 86 Granite District schools, and 44 of 81 Davis schools — except for in media centers, computer rooms and child care wings.

So how can your children beat the heat? Jordan District nurses have some tips.

"It's going to be hot, and it's going to be unusually hot this year," Jordan District spokeswoman Melinda Colton said. "Come prepared the first day not just to learn, but to be cool."

Cool air — or lack thereof — has been a hot topic at the beginning and end of nearly every school year. Parents and teachers have complained about classrooms reaching 90 degrees or more, making some students listless, and a few sick.

Schools have responded by allowing students to bring misters and water bottles on hot days and opening windows at night. Salt Lake City elementary students once made their own swamp coolers by draping wet burlap over fans.

Granite School District three years ago invested $80,000 in an automated "purge" system, with screened louvers programmed to open at night and blow out all the hot air. That was done instead of spending $42.4 million up front and about $1 million a year to run air-conditioners in 51 schools. At the time, 32 schools were fully air-conditioned — one more since has been added — and four, partially cooled, and four more retrofitted for future air-conditioning.

But in Salt Lake City, voters several years ago approved a $136 million bond to rebuild and air-condition district schools. Just two — Clayton and Hillside middle schools — of 36 don't yet have cool air, spokesman Jason Olsen said. They will soon.

"When it's abnormally hot in the classroom, the attention span of a student tends to suffer, (be it because) they're looking for water or sweating to death," Olsen said. Teachers also have to give children more water breaks when it's hot. "It just interrupts the learning process."

Copperview Elementary fourth-grade teacher Spencer Van Hoose can attest to that. But this year, he thinks, will be different. Copperview got air-conditioning in a $10 million remodel, completed this month.

"They won't be sweating in their seats every afternoon," Van Hoose said.