- Jefferson County School district is having to delay their school year for the second time due to issues with air conditioning.
- Leon High School had an issue with their A/C Friday morning and fixed it within an hour.
- HVAC parts aren't the only challenges for Jefferson County
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
With this week's record heat, air conditioners are failing at schools across the Big Bend.
Leon High School had their air conditioning shut off in part of their main building on the second day of school.
Crews were able to fix the issue just a few hours later.
This is not the only school dealing with AC issues right now.
Jefferson County School District is one of many districts around the country struggling with AC issues ahead of the school year.
"We took back our school system back over and realized there were issues with the chiller," Superintendent Eydie Tricquet said.
Tricquet said the issues were discovered when the county retook control of the school system from a charter school company.
"Last September 2022, we ordered a chiller," Tricquet said.
The parts to make the repair have still not arrived.
In the meantime, she said the district is renting a part. That delay in parts is delaying the start of school for a second this week.
School leaders don't want to risk sending kids to class with no way to keep cool.
"Kids can't learn when those situations happen," Tricquet said. "Teachers can't teach. I don't want to put anyone in that situation. "
The part shortage is an issue affecting the HVAC industry nationwide.
"We have had to go to suppliers we have never used before," said Kevin Calhoun with Barineau Heating and Air.
He said it has never been this hard to make repairs.
"We have had to order from Canada to get some of the things we need," Calhoun said. "These are things five years ago we could have found on every corner."
He said it all started with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"A lack of workers to create the products, a lack of workers to transport the products," Calhoun said.
It is still a problem in 2023.
"We are still feeling quite the pinch when it comes to getting parts and pieces from across the country," Calhoun said.
It's not just A/C that's affecting school districts.
"We ordered buses. It took us a year to get buses," Tricquet said. "There's just a lot of things that we need to operate school."
Parents I spoke with Friday said they're glad to see the district push school back.
They told me they would rather wait than have their students in a hot classroom.
"Hopefully, today we will get everything ready and have the whole weekend to cool everything down to make sure that it is operational," Tricquet said.
Jefferson County Schools is set to start on Monday, August 14.
