I am a parent of two SEED students and a longtime teacher and TSA in OUSD (I currently work at Garfield). I know as a parent, a teacher, and a school leader how critical it is for us to address the heat mitigation challenges in our schools. I have had my children come home complaining of how hot it was in their classroom and of having a headache even though they drank “so much water.” I have also been the teacher in the classroom trying to get 30 fourth graders to engage in “productive struggle” in math class when I myself was struggling to focus due to the extreme heat, and I’ve seen on a school wide level how it impacts energy and morale when everyone feels like they’re melting. Our schools are simply not designed to meet the challenges presented by climate change. With school starting in early August these days we often spend the first two months of the school year in intolerable conditions. We have to address this right away. Thank you.

I am a parent of two Glenview students and a staff member whose role brings me to up to 8 sites a year to serve students. I encounter unreasonably hot temperatures in classrooms across OUSD each fall (really it’s still summer!), and spring. One year my Glenview kid’s teacher even got heatstroke at back to school night because those upstairs upper grade classrooms get so hot in August and September by the afternoon and she’d been there all day into the evening! You built a brand new school and didn’t install AC. Kids can’t learn and teachers can’t teach when they are dizzy, sweating, and overheating. Global warming is changing the temperature patterns of the Bay Area. Please address the heat in creative and systematic ways as part of your facilities master plan for the next 5 years so our students can thrive.