State Panel Rejects Call to Fund School Air Conditioning
The comptroller had asked that half of a $7 million request for Baltimore County be withheld until there was a plan to install temporary window units in some schools.
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The state Board of Public Works voted Wednesday to approve $7 million in improvements to seven westside schools in Baltimore County.
Gov. Martin O'Malley and state Treasurer Nancy Kopp voted down a motion by Comptroller Peter Franchot that would have withheld $3.5 million until there was a plan to install air conditioning in come county schools.
Schools slated for the money include:
- Woodlawn and Franklin High Schools
- Cedarmere, Glyndon and Randallstown elementary schools
- Pikesville Middle School
- Chatsworth School
About $3.3 million is slated to go toward replacing windows at Woodlawn High School. The county notes in its request that 56 percent of the school's population is eligible for free or reduced-price lunches.
The decision disappointed the parents and students of one Essex elementary school who came to Annapolis to ask the board for air conditioning.
"We didn't get anywhere," said Cathy Fialkowski, a parent who has twin boys in second grade at Middleborough Elementary School.
Fialkowksi and her sons came to Annapolis with other parents and children from the school to encourage the board to switch some of the money to installing air conditioning in county schools.
PastorLorenzo Epps
1:52 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011
We went to school with no air conditioning and you pampered pooches will do the same! I mean really!
Tim
2:20 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011
and you went to school unphill both ways in the snow.
What a bitter old fellow for a "Pastor".
PastorLorenzo Epps
2:22 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011
yes tim...i'm bitter over air conditioning...lol.
PastorLorenzo Epps
1:54 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011
...but if you must install air conditioning...you need to make sure it is powered by solar....there are solar units that can sit in each classroom with a window unit.
kimberly hewitt
1:58 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011
OweMalley is an azz!
PastorLorenzo Epps
2:21 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011
lol
Cathy Fialkowski
2:22 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011
PastorLorenzo Epps, when the heat index is up to 105 degrees, do you go without air conditioning? What a heartless comment.
PastorLorenzo Epps
3:52 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011
@Cathy...not heartless...if im in a school....I simply go home to the air conditioning. cathy....judge cathy....get over yourself.
Bart
4:20 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Years ago, when I and the "Pastor" were in school, the year ended at Memorial Day, and didn't begin again until AFTER Labor Day. So there were about 4 - 5 fewer weeks in every year during the hottest time of the year. And we had windows that opened to the fresh air.
That heat is oppressive in the classrooms; unhealthy for the kids and the teachers. The A/C is not a luxury, but necessity for health reasons.
And nobody can leave whenever they are uncomfortable to go home into their home air conditioning.
PastorLorenzo Epps
7:46 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011
@bart..it is a luxury...you can leave with parental permission...and if the schools are too hot the school year needs to be shortened...this is a luxury baltimore county can't afford in this DEPRESSION.
Tim
2:21 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011
and here you see the governor you voted for. No concern for anyone but himself and his cronies.
Congratulations Maryland. Your two term failure.
Cathy Fialkowski
2:25 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Kamenetz let it out of the bag that the Districts that voted for the alcohol and tobacco tax are where the schools on the list are located. This $7 million did not go to a public vote.
Tim
2:34 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Of course they voted for it. They were the beneficiaries.
Convenient.
Good catch, I hadn't made that correlation. Corruption - it's not just for gerrymandering!
PastorLorenzo Epps
7:47 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011
It would be nice to have leaders that lead...you know...cutting their salaries before they cut your job.
LalainMaryland
8:36 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Pastor. Are you going to pay the 3700/unit for solar AC units?!?
LalainMaryland
8:37 pm on Wednesday, October 19, 2011
AC needs to be installed. If kids leave school early they will be UNEXCUSED and not get their makeup work. Shortening the school year requires a change to COMAR. and we wonder why kids don't pass the MSA and HSA.
Matthew
6:28 am on Thursday, October 20, 2011
As Kamenetz is giving all this money to the areas that voted for the alcohol tax, maybe we should adopt his logic across the board: Only enforce new laws in the juridictions where legislators voted for them. Of course, this is impossible, impractical, and absurd...which desribes what that clown is doing in Towson right now.
Barbh
10:41 am on Thursday, October 20, 2011
I can't believe the schools were not provided with A/C during years when we did NOT have a recession. We need to find the money. If the county won't do it, could the schools have fundraisers to fund the installation of window units. Of course, the county would need to pay the electric bill. Maybe the county could buy them back when they do have the money. Our kids and grandkids are suffering. It is terribly unhealthy. Weather today is much more harsh than when I was in school. I agree with the above comment that kids are in school much longer now.
Betty Lou
3:18 pm on Thursday, October 20, 2011
Don't the schools close early when the heat & humidity is excessive? I went to school in the 50's & 60's & we never went home early. It may have been uncomfortable, but we got through it. Then we went home to "Un airconditioned" houses.
Concerned Mom
2:04 am on Friday, October 21, 2011
Unless you actually work in a school that does not have air conditioning and has old, faulty windows that don't open, and work in a classroom that has no cross-ventilation with an internal classroom temperature of over 90 degrees and a humidity level of 95% for days on end, then you have absolutely no right to make ANY comments against air conditioning in schools. I invite you to Lutherville Lab Elementary School on days such as these and have you do all of the physical things necessary to maintain a special needs classroom and then see how you like it!
Cathy Fialkowski
9:31 am on Friday, October 21, 2011
I could not agree with you more, Concerned Mom. I too am a "Concerned Mom" and the people commenting that AC is not needed in schools really have no idea how unbearable it is in these classrooms. I volunteer periodically in my children's room, and I can barely stand it for the short time I'm there. And we also need to think about the teachers who have to work in these temperatures year after year with no relief. Shelters are opened up for those without AC, because its TOO HOT to stand. Yet our Teachers and children are made to suffer in these Baltimore County schools, where the local government and BCPS just refuse to help. I just don't get it.
Dkennylee
12:23 pm on Friday, October 21, 2011
Stop making schools look like malls and they would have the money for ac....
Calm down
12:36 pm on Friday, October 21, 2011
The issue is all about money. If it costs $400 million to air condition the remaining county schools, what does NOT get funded so that air conditioning has the priority? Roofs? Windows? Rehab of Stoneleigh and Hampton Elementary? New construction of Dundalk High or Carver High? Either Franchot is telling us to raise our taxes or he is just using those parents from Middleborough as pawns in his run for governor.
Olivia Van Zandt
3:12 pm on Friday, October 21, 2011
As a lifelong BCPS student, I can say I didn't die from a lack of AC, especially at Franklin High. But both my brother and I's schools have been closed because the heat was too much to stand. It's a lot of money, but I've also seen a lot of kids pass out from heat and a lot of homework making up for days they had to close school.