Classrooms in the National School District have become cooler with the recent installation of air conditioning units to four of its schools.
The plan is to have the remaining four schools in the district installed with air conditioning by the end of 2016, said Chris Carson, assistant superintendent of business services at the National School District.
The project is made possible by Proposition N, a bond measure National City voters passed last November to rebuild and repair aging classrooms throughout the district; as well as to meet handicapped access requirements.
“This particular bond isn’t designed to build brand-new classrooms, necessarily,” Carson said. “It’s not there to do that. To build a school. It was more intended to upgrade our older facilities and bring them in line with current standards in terms of air conditioning and that type of thing.”
The general obligation bond increases National’s debt by $26.1 million, which has to be paid back over the next 30 years.
“The school district, in all the years that’s been in existence, I don’t think we’ve ever gone out for a general obligation bond,” said superintendent Chris Oram. “This is the first time ever that we’ve done that.”
Four schools received air conditioning for all of their classrooms this summer, Central Elementary School, El Toyon, Ira Harbison and Lincoln Acres.
Kimball, John Otis, Las Palmas and Olivewood are expected to have air conditioning systems by the end of next year.
“When the kids are in a hot room it is not necessarily conducive to learning,” Carson said.
Carson said Lincoln Acres and John A. Otis never had air-condition because they were built in the 1920s and other schools needed an upgrade as they were built in the 1960s.
Only Rancho de la Nacion had a suitable air conditioning system in place but that is because they had portable classrooms.
Palmer Way also had an air conditioning unit as it was one of the newer schools in the district built in the late 1960s.
The four schools will debut their air condition systems when school starts on Aug. 30.
The bond also calls for other classroom improvements such as having every classroom in the district equipped with high speed Internet.
“The high-speed Internet will help with the smart balance testing, which is done online under the new common core standards,” Carson said.
Carson said the district has used about $18 million of the bond so far.
Carson also said there are plans to add additional parking spaces at all their campuses to help with the student pick up and drop off, as well as to be in compliance with the American disabilities act.
Carson said the fact that residents from one of the poorest cities in the county passed this bond, shows the community’s commitment to children.
“What it tell is the taxpayers and the parents in the community recognize the need in the classrooms and also that they know we are good stewards of the public’s dollars,” he said.
