TENAFLY, N.J.—Cooling off students was a hot topic at two August school board meetings, with parents emphasizing the need to make school classrooms as comfortable as possible despite heat waves or hot spells.
A unanimous school board decision to move ahead with a study of air conditioning and cooling ventilation options for Tenafly’s six schools was approved Aug. 26—the second study in three years to examine what alternatives exist and their likely costs.
Similar to discussions in 2016, the Aug. 26 discussion featured at least one school trustee referring to a possible referendum question should the tab for air conditioning approach or exceed the $17 million estimate presented then.
However, trustees hope the recently approved study offers them more options than installing central air conditioning in all six schools.
Mostly, the 2016 study, which cost $14,000, focused on how to install central air conditioning in Tenafly’s six public schools.
School administrators point out that each of Tenafly’s public schools, which include four elementary schools, a middle school and high school, comprise varying structural configurations that need to be addressed separately to find out what may work best for ventilation and cooling of each building.
Who and when?
“It has not been determined who will conduct the study and there is presently no timeline,” said school board administrator Yas Usami Sept. 3.
In September 2016, the feasibility study by French & Parrello Associates, found that costs to do all the necessary electrical and building upgrades to install central air conditioning would total about $17 million. However, no action was taken following the report.
Several trustees expressed dissatisfaction Aug. 26 with the comprehensiveness of the 2016 feasibility report, hoping a new report would present new or lower-cost options for cooling as well as air conditioning.
2016 study questions
Trustee Mark Aronson said he felt the 2016 report “did not explore all of the options” for ventilation and air conditioning systems and said when they inquired about alternatives, their questions went unaddressed.
“When we asked questions, we got shot down,” he said.
Aronson and other trustees expressed concern that the 2016 study and approved 2019 study should not provide any monetary benefits to the study author for any air conditioning work that is estimated or recommended.
Aronson suggested an “independent study” and that the study consultant be at “arm’s length” from any recommended work products, that “all options” be on the table for consideration, and that options be “as green as possible” with low or no environmental impacts.
Superintendent of Schools Shauna DeMarco agreed that the district needs to know “all of the options” for ventilation and cooling of schools. She said a new “architect of record” will be recommended at the Sept. 16 board meeting.
Board President Janet Horan said trustees should know within six months all possible options for ventilation and cooling.
Central AC ‘is one option’
Aronson stressed that central air conditioning is one option “but to kind of limit it is wrong,” he said, noting options to “keep the classrooms cool” is what they study should present.
Trustee Edward Salaski, who served in 2016 on the board’s facilities committee, voiced skepticism that the new study would find “anything substantially different” than the 2016 study.
“I don’t think it’s that bad,” Salaski said of a study critiqued by Aronson and trustee Sam Bruno.
Salaski warned Aronson and Bruno not to expect finding some cooling option that was half-price or that pays for itself with the electricity it generates.
Aronson said he was not disputing the previous study’s estimate for installation of central air conditioning, but that he did not feel it offered more options to keep schools cool despite hot weather.
‘No other option’
“We may find there is no other option,” said Aronson of central air conditioning.
As a study of options is due in early 2020, it may be another summer or two before some cooling alternatives are available in the district.
Should trustees decide to go with central air conditioning in all schools, the earliest bond referendum date—should trustees vote to have one—would be November 2020 for taxpayers to decide on funding the facilities’ upgrades.
The resolution calls for “approval to receive, review, analyze and assess information for cooling system options…in light of the benefits derived from improving the district’s school buildings by installing state of the art ventilation and air conditioning, the board is committed to exploring its options, including the cost and timelines for installing these systems in each of the district’s schools.”
Board trustees discussed a cooling/ventilation study at the Aug. 19 and Aug. 26 meetings.
Ed Mazlish of Ivy Lane said Aug 19 that he favored a study for possible air conditioning of schools and said waiting outside on a warm night he could see the need for air conditioning.
He wondered what payment possibilities existed to get AC into the schools.
‘How to pay for it’
Bruno said his biggest issue with air conditioning in all schools “was how to pay for it.”
Another parent, Alex Bersheqsky, who said she spoke for about 150 parents who joined her Facebook page, pushed for a “restudy” of all cooling options and thanked trustees for approving a study.
Another parent, Katherine Carlberg of Ivy Lane, questioned how parents might be notified in advance if district schools were to close for “heat days” as she said occurred in September 2018.
DeMarco said via email that school was limited to one session but did not close during one day in 2018 due to heat concerns.
DeMarco said “she wished things were more black and white” regarding school heat closures but said decisions to close schools are “judgment calls” based on factors such as duration of a heat wave—generally considered three days above 90 degrees—and whether school buildings have a chance to cool down overnight.
She said she hoped the upcoming cooling study would explore all options to keep the schools open despite a heat wave. Heat-related closures would only occur “in extraordinary circumstances,” said DeMarco Aug. 26.
She said via email that health and safety underscore all decisions to limit or dismiss school due to heat and cited school policy that says the superintendent “may close the schools, delay the opening of school, or dismiss school early when such alteration in the regular session is required for the protection of the health and safety of pupils and staff members.”