Mt. Pleasant PTO hoping to buy $40,000 in air-conditioning units for elementary buildings
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Almost every child wants to look cool when they go back to school.
In Mt. Pleasant Area School District, parent-teacher organization members want children to feel cool as well. The group hopes district officials will allow them to buy about $40,000 worth of portable air-conditioning units for its elementary schools, which do not have central air.
“I was part of the district’s task force meeting to discuss our reopening plan,” said Mt. Pleasant PTO President Crystal Helman.
One of the primary hindrances in having elementary students wear masks most of the day is the heat in the schools, she said.
“Every year, kids get sent home or end up going to the nurse’s office because, sometimes, some of the rooms can get near 100 degrees,” she said.
Having shut down in mid-March along with most everything else school-related, the PTO had unused funding remaining. The group initially approached the district about buying window units.
“Originally, they didn’t like the idea of window units because of the aesthetics of the buildings,” Helman said. “They asked us to get information on portable units. We want to buy 54 of them to put in the Donegal, Ramsay and Norvelt elementary buildings.”
An online petition posted on Change.org regarding the offer has gathered more than 800 signatures.
The PTO offer was initially rejected. Superintendent Timothy Gabauer said the district’s solicitor wanted additional information about the proposal.
“Our solicitor wanted to be certain of particulars such as insurance, appropriateness of the equipment for the intended use, electrical capacity in the buildings, maintenance and labor requirements for installation and other such considerations,” Gabauer said.
Helman said district officials did consider installing central air in the buildings a few years ago, but ultimately decided against it. She said she is getting answers to as many of the district’s questions as she can.
“I’m getting back in touch with the air-conditioning folks to see if they can give me a cost to install the units,” she said. “I’ve talked with an electrician who said it wouldn’t be a problem to put them in. I don’t know about the insurance issue — I can’t figure that out for the district.”
In the meantime, the PTO planned to vote Wednesday to authorize the purchase of the portable units, if the district agrees to accept them.
Helman said she hopes that can happen.
“We figure even some portable units to help bring the temperature down would help improve learning,” she said.
Mt. Pleasant Area students will return to school Sept. 8.