District school's AC bill is $28M

The work was done in a blitz similar to the one undertaken to give all classrooms in the District’s 142-school system heat in time for winter.

But officials said they don’t expect to have to go back and spend nearly what they did to fix the heating units in a series of emergency repairs -- $12 million or three times the budgeted amount.

Facilities head Allen Lew, standing beside Mayor Adrian Fenty, said during the briefing that it was simply unacceptable for schools to not have adequate air conditioning, which was the reason behind the big push.

“It’s ridiculously embarrassing to have kids come into classrooms that are 90 degrees and actually think we’re going to teach them anything,” Fenty said Friday.

The District has been putting increased focus on getting both remedial and high-achieving students into an expanded catalog of summer school courses.

Three contractors -- Blue Sky Construction, Turner Construction and HRGM Construction -- were hired to install, replace and set up window AC units.

Lew said workers put in nearly 2,900 units. In Ward 8, the area with the most climate control problems, 772 air conditioners were put in place.

According to Lew, beyond installation an emphasis is being placed on ensuring units had the power behind them to actually work.

“Last year there were units put in that weren’t turned on because the power has to be upgraded,” he said. “The most challenging effort for us was dealing with that.”

In the heating blitz, $10 million was spent on the front end to patch up boilers and heaters. During subsequent months $12 million more was spent to fix situations that arose at most schools, because problems turned out to be worse than expected.

Officials hope that by knocking out the air conditioning issue now, crews will be free to focus on a slate of major renovations during the summer months.

dlevitz@dcexaminer.com