Parents and student complaining about hot classrooms at APS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —

Classroom temperatures in some Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) buildings have reached as high as 93 degrees in recent weeks, prompting concerns from parents and teachers about the conditions in the classroom.

Parents waiting to pick up their children Tuesday afternoon at Eisenhower Middle School shared what their children have been saying about the heat.

“Usually it’s, ‘We’re sweating, Mom. It’s hot. It’s uncomfortable,'” one parent said.

Another parent said, “We’ve lived here since 2020, and since our kids have been back in school, they haven’t had working AC or swamp coolers.”

APS stated in an email that there are currently 400 work orders for cooling units across the district. The district clarified that not all of these work orders are for broken air conditioning units, some are for maintenance. APS noted that these work orders represent just 2% of the 22,000 cooling units in its schools.

We spoke to Sarah Hager, president of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation.

“Statistically, it’s not a lot. But when I think about one teacher in a classroom with, if you’re teaching elementary, 30 kids all day, it’s unbearable,” Hager said.

The district reported that one-third of its cooling systems use refrigerated air, while the remaining two-thirds rely on swamp coolers.

“Swamp coolers efficiently work by reducing the heat by 15 to 20 degrees. On a 100-degree day, you’re only going to get down to 85 degrees, and that’s just not good enough,” Hager said.

The teachers union also highlighted issues with refrigerated air systems, noting that the air conditioning at Onate Elementary went out in March and was only repaired this week.

APS said it has been deploying portable cooling units in classrooms that have no air conditioning.

Hager said all APS buildings need to be converted to refrigerated air.

“Are we going to wait until a student is severely injured at school because they had heat stroke?,” said Hager.