LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The principal at an elementary school in Centennial Hills said students there are taking classes in cooler areas of the campus while staff deals with a partial outage of the school’s air conditioning.
“The HVAC at our school is currently experiencing issues in some areas of the campus,” Kimberly Gray, principal of Darnell Elementary School, said in a letter to parents obtained by the 8 News Now Investigators. “The District is working to provide technicians to work on the unit.”
Staff, who requested anonymity, said the problems started Monday and impacted students into Wednesday morning. They said the school’s office and health office are so hot they’ve had to bring in their own fans to stay cool. Additionally, the health office contains medicine and other supplies that need to be kept at a specific temperature. EpiPens, for instance, might lose efficacy if they are not kept cool, the staff told the 8 News Now Investigators.
Those staffers produced a photo of a thermometer reading indoors that read 92.2 degrees and told the 8 News Now Investigators that the temperature inside the building had reached 96. Outdoors, it was around 115 degrees when the children were let out of school Wednesday afternoon.
In an email responding to questions about the air conditioner at the school, a spokesman for Clark County School District wrote the following: “The District is working on HVAC repairs impacting a portion of the campus. All students are in classrooms with working HVAC units.”
Parents arriving Wednesday to pick up their children were all aware, at least to an extent, of the air conditioning outage.
“It’s frustrating that it’s out, but they’re also going through a remodel,” Felica Calhoun, a parent, said.
Calhoun – who sends two children to Darnell during the school year but only her young son year-round – said the school administration has been communicative over email and has called some parents directly. She said her son is spending the school days in a portable classroom unit with its own operative air conditioning.
“If I did think he was in a room where it was a hundred degrees, I would definitely not be having him here,” Calhoun said.
