The following appeared in the January 17, 2008 edition of the Cambridge Times. It's a positive next step following lengthy discussions on the topic of heat in school portables. Hopefully, this process will lead to timely resolution of the issue.
How hot is hot in school portables? Board will spend year monitoring temperatures
by Lisa Rutledge
Published on Jan 17, 2008 , Cambridge Times
After years of discussing what needs to be done to help reduce heat in school portables, Waterloo public trustees are one step closer to bringing relief to teachers and students who have been putting in their own kind of sweat equity.
During a Waterloo Region District School Board meeting Monday night, trustees voted to direct staff to spend the next year examining 350 portables across the district and see just how hot they can get in extreme weather.
They are expected to report back to the board in March 2009 with recommendations to make learning more comfortable for teachers and students.
For trustee Cindy Watson, the move has been a long-time coming. She called on the board Monday night to take steps to bring relief. "We've talked about this issue for five years and I'm tired of talking about it," Watson told the board. "It's time to move, it's time to send a message that we're going to address this."
Those comments were echoed by trustee Kathleen Woodcock, who argued the school board should move even faster. She said if the board waits any longer, it could be perceived to be stalling.
She contends it should take a leading role to protect children and teachers. "If we delay this any longer, we're sentencing the students."
In the worst-case scenarios, the district plans to install air conditioners. In cases where the climate is deemed less extreme, other measures will be taken to reduce heat, measures such as increasing ventilation rates, relocating portables from tarmac to shady areas and installing reflective windows and shades.
Other options could include night cooling, which utilizes cooler night air to reduce temperatures in the stand-alone classrooms.
Reading from anonymous testimonials from teachers who demand to see air conditioners installed in portables, Watson said classrooms reach unbearable temperatures, including seven days last September where temperatures rose to between 29 and 38 C with humidity factored in.
The testimonial also stated excessive temperatures cause profuse sweating, nausea and vomiting, lethargy and dizziness, headaches, poor concentration and poor visibility due to the fact that lights are turned off and drapes are drawn in attempt to cool portables.
While there was discussion from other trustees to refer the matter to the board's environmental advisory committee, trustee Catherine Fife, a member of that working group, said the issue has already been discussed and didn't want to see any further delays.
There was also debate around the financial and environmental impacts of installing air conditioners, resulting in the board's compromise to search out the worst-case scenarios, reserving alternative cooling options for other portables.
"For those who are concerned about the environment, we're not doing all of them," explained Watson. "We're just going to do the worst-case scenarios." Air conditioners could be installed as early as the end of the 2009 school year, however, teachers and students may not want to put away their thermometers just yet as the cooling initiative will be phased in over a five-year period from May 2009 to May 2014.
