BARTOW, Fla. — The first day of school in Polk County is coming to a close. In some classrooms, the excitement from the day is stifled by broken AC units.
On Thursday, the Polk Education Association filed a class action grievance against the school district. Since then, the association said an additional 10 schools were identified as having AC issues – bringing the total to 25 schools in the county.
"We have a school where the cafeteria is out," PEA President Stephanie Yocum said. "You have 200 kids trying to eat lunch in there, no AC not going to happen."
Yocum said these concerns were brought to the district months ago, in the springtime. Now that classes are back in session, it's a game of catch-up.
"The district has a self-imposed labor shortage with AC techs because they don't pay what private sector jobs can pay for AC technicians. So we're down nine AC techs," Yocum explained.
The school district said portable AC units are being installed. HVAC techs are working overtime to get repairs completed. Students impacted are being relocated to areas with working AC.
And for anyone wondering how busy of a summer it's been for air conditioning companies, it's a hot mess.
"The summer has been unbelievably bad," Johnathan Jester described. He's the president of Citrus Air in Bartow.
He and other companies across Tampa Bay are overwhelmed with calls for help. Citrus Air manages maintenance for some of the schools in Hillsborough County's district. He shared how that's handled.
"It's done all year, but a heavy amount of it is done in the summer when no one is there getting ready for the start of school," Jester explained.
Even without record temps, Jester said there's always something to repair when school starts back up. AC units that may have worked well over the summer can't always keep up with the added heat a packed classroom brings.
"I would say for a really well-maintained school, light chaos would be a good explanation for what happens," he said.
The education association filed a formal complaint with the goal of getting AC outages fixed faster.
"If we are going to do our job, which is to teach them their standards, make sure that they're on grade level. We can't do that in learning conditions that are not conducive to learning," Yocum said.
The county association said the only response they've received from the school district following their complaint is the press release media outlets received.
Malique Rankin is a general assignment reporter with 10 Tampa Bay. You can email her story ideas at mrankin@10tampabay.com and follow her Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.