Olympic Heights High School has been struggling with air conditions problems. Students say the air has been out at least twice a week since the start of the school year.
“Every day we get to school we just have to pray, 'please let there be A/C today,' ” said junior Ari Silver.
Silver and his friend Dylan Smurlick said they have dealt with the A/C problems since their freshman year.
Smurlick said the air will go out and it leaves the classrooms hot and humid.
“When it is 90 degrees outside and the A/C is broken, I am dripping in sweat,” he added.
According to Palm Beach County School Board Member Frank Barbieri, 40 students went to the nurse with heat-related illnesses two weeks ago.
Junior Sophia Keane said the A/C problems are affecting her school work.
“A lot of the times I get migraines when the A/C goes out, and when I get a migraine my head starts hurting, I can’t really focus,” she said.
Barbieri took the problem to the school board last week.
“You can’t expect a student to be able to learn, or a teach to be able to teach in a classroom that is 80 and 90 degrees,” said Barbieri.
He said this has been an issue for the past five years and in those five years, there have been 210 maintenance requests for the A/C system at Olympic Heights; that equals about one request a week.
It has been too long, too many days without air,” said Barbieri.
During last week’s school board meeting the district said the A/C unit appears to go until when there is a power surge from FPL. A new monitor has been placed on the A/C unit to figure out how to fix the problem. No timeline was given for how long it will take to solve the issue.