Yea its no big deal when u sit in ac office these people should find a new job

When my children were younger and attended Arbutus Middle School I called the Board of Education on a particularly scorching day and suggested that Mr. Hairston turn off his air conditioner and suffer with the children. Before I knew it, school was called half day off the next day. Like Dkennylee said, it's easy to sit in air conditioning and tell someone to deal with the heat!

When I was a kid, sure we didn't have air conditioning, but we had windows that opened wide, fans to move the air around, and, most importantly we weren't in school in June and August.
The heat is a health hazzard for kids, teachers and teaching assistants. Something must be done.

I don't know that my kids deal with the "health hazard" too often; just trying to be honest. That said, it is nothing less than foolish and hollow to suggest to teachers and children that learning should occur for six hours in these conditions. It's simple: If you are serious about teachers teaching and students learning, provide an environment that supports and fosters your mission. Maybe that should have been a part of the Blueprint for "Progress"?

I LOVE the idea of insisting that these insensitive and inept administrators turn off their air conditioners ( and NOT open their windows) whenever our children and teachers have to endure such terrible conditions. Bet it wouldn't take long for them to end up out in their air-conditioned cars to check up on some silly parental and teacher complaints. Do any of them have children sitting on those sweat box classrooms ? Probably not. Too bad.

I work at Lutherville Lab where the temperatures in the classroom get dangerously high. What needs to be done is that every classroom in Baltimore County without air conditioning needs to get a thermometer and record the temperature on the hottest days with a flip-cam. Then all of those classrooms need to send those findings to our local representatives, bcps big-wigs, the governor, and the media. It needs to be an organized effort that involves parents, teachers, and staff that are affected by the horrible working conditions that we have to withstand.

What did man do from the beginning of time until 20 years ago? He sweated and dealt with it!!!! You won't die from lack of A/C people.......

a little suffeeing is good for the soul. no new or higher taxes to pay for air conditioning in schools. for that matter, take that money and return it to the taxpayer.

We are dealing with many poorly designed buildings that seem to have 0 passive cooling capability. Perhaps some less expensive passive cooling technique would solve some of the problem with no added cost to energy consumed.

This fight for AC started at Ridgely Middle after a botched renovation (school was renovated for AC, but AC wasn't installed). The ceilings were lowered, walls of mainly static/non-opening windows were put in, and the few windows that did open opened INWARD by 30%. This led to 103+-degree classrooms. The parents bought thermometers, submitted extensive and detailed temperature data, but it wasn't accepted by BCPS. BCPS finally did its own data gathering, but somehow the data was "lost" or "corrupted." Thank goodness, in the end, the school received AC, but only after years and thousands of volunteer hours expended. When kids get rushed to the hospital due to dehydration, we have a problem.

My heartfelt thanks for all of the supportive comments on this issue. I'm encouraged to see the outpouring of concern stemming from parents living in differing parts of Baltimore County. The only way we're going to resolve this imbalance is by working together and pooling our respective communities into one voice to show that this is a county-wide issue.

To Moe and MTH: Imagine the heartbreak of walking your 7 year-old little girl up the sidewalk leading to her school knowing the temperature INSIDE her 1st grade classroom was 94 degrees at 7:30 AM. Seeing her step off the bus exhausted with her face flush, her hair and clothes soaked with sweat, and her toes shriveled up when I took off her shoes and socks brought me to tears--and I've been outraged ever since.

Schools now start in August and run through late-June so children now are subjected to these types of temperatures a lot longer than we did 20+ years ago.

Myself and other parents at Middleborough offered to privately purchase the 25 individual air conditioning units needed to bring relief to all of the non-air conditioned classrooms as well as the cafeteria if Baltimore County would pay for their installation per their requirements and were denied.

If anyone would like to join our efforts, please email your information to ac4middleborough@gmail.com

Paul...it means we need more people like you to stand with us and ask these simple questions...We supplied that very form within our presentation packets. In the October 19th Board of Public Works Hearing, Dr. Hairston stated that the process used in determining when schools would close due to extreme heat was when the heat index reached 95 degress by 9 am. Look at BCPS Rule 6303...you'll see that this was updated on 12/2011, 2 months after this statement, yet you will find that there is NO set time and temperature protocol...

The County and State are out of money. Their credit cards are maxed out. Until they shuffle priorities, there will be no money for AC. Focus on getting the county to make AC a priority and it can be done. Go through their budget. There are $100,000 crumbs everywhere but there is no one gathering them for a better purpose. Just a continual year to year shell game. If there were debt capacity, there are 6 groups that would lend the money and execute the installation tomorrow. But the County and State refuses to cut meaningfully from their budgets.

We need to get the media involved- like the local news, maybe Tim Tooten, and put pressure on the right people. There needs to be follow-up. The county and state need to be held accountable!

We need to formally invite our local reps, the govenor, bcps big wigs, and the media to actually come and spend a few hours in the hottest classrooms and see how much work they can accomplished!

It's time for the good ol American way to kick in folks.... If what you have done to date has not been effective, and you feel that your children could potentially be at risk in some way, it would be your responsibility to insist on an immediate remedy.
The students should not have to face another year of the same neglect.

If one school has air conditioning... all schools should have air conditioning.... period
Responsible leadership would have the skill set required to make such improvement in education opportunity.

Buck- I agree 100%! And why does the front offices, computer lab, and library get to have it, while the rest of the staff has to suffer? It's ridiculous and inhumane!

I would guess the front office gets it because they are 12 month employees and are there in June, July, and August. But they could follow the student rule, if students go to school without A/C, so do administrators.

Air conditioning IS A BIG DEAL! i challenge all these county officials to spend an hour in a classroom that is above 90 degrees. i can tell you from experience being a senior in HS how hot it can get and how frustrating it is that kids are subjected to this. If we aren't comfortable how do they expect us to learn and be focused when we are sweating in our seats? What about the ones that have medical conditions that can't be in this heat? Teachers that are pregnant that have enough things going on with fatigue and hormones along with this heat. This affects students learning, i thought education was #1. It is a big deal!

MTH- Working outside means that you have access to some air flow- we do not. You can go and seek air conditioning if you want to- we cannot. We are bathrooming 16 special needs children in a small windowless bathroom that is over 90 degress, not to mention the heat and humidity in the classroom and also doing all of physical things required to run a classroom with active special needs kids. When you have done this job under these conditions, then you have a right to post on this topic, until then, you look completely ridiculous because you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about!

Here we go- let's get this done!

http://www.comp.state.md.us/comptroller/initiatives/airconditioning/default.asp#