'Pray for us' — NYC schools struggle and students swelter in brutal heat

Extreme heat has scrambled plans for the final days of New York City's public schools this year.

Students switched classrooms due to broken air conditioners, some graduations moved inside and many activities were canceled. A teacher told Gothamist that in at least one case, some students got sick due to the heat.

Temperatures exceeded 100 degrees Tuesday, and are expected to approach 100 again on Wednesday before cooling down later this week. The last official day for New York City's public schools is Thursday.

The education department said it sent out a directive Sunday night to move outdoor activities to air-conditioned spaces indoors. But while classrooms are required to be air conditioned, many common spaces like gyms, auditoriums and cafeterias are not.

The squeeze on space became even more pronounced Tuesday as many gyms were used as polling sites for Tuesday’s primary elections.

Highbridge Green, a Bronx middle school, was set to hold its graduation ceremony in the gym on Tuesday, but Principal Kyle Brillante said five out of the space's eight air conditioning units had malfunctioned.

“We have a fan blowing hot air,” he said, adding that he’d encouraged families to wear light clothes. “Pray for us.”

Education department spokesperson Jenna Lyle said the city was working closely with Con Edison and facilities staff to repair any outages quickly.

“As temperatures rise, we will always work to keep our students and staff cool and safe,” she said.

The city has spent more than $400 million on air conditioners in recent years, and officials said there should be a system in every classroom, but a data analysis from the city’s Independent Budget Office for the education news site Chalkbeat found that as many as 1 in 5 classrooms lacked air conditioning last year.

Year after year, parents and educators report broken air conditioners lead to steamy classrooms and a sort of whack-a-mole situation as technicians race to fix units.

Rachel Spector, a parent at P.S. 230 in Brooklyn, said the air conditioning in her daughter’s classroom wasn’t working Monday, so the students moved to the art room, where it was.

“Also an outdoor class trip was canceled,” Spector said. “Sad, but probably necessary.”

Also Monday, a Bronx middle school teacher said much of the air conditioning at her school was out — leaving kids wilting in the heat. Some threw up, said the teacher, who asked that her name not be shared because she was not authorized to speak to media. The teacher said students couldn’t move to the air-conditioned gym until Tuesday because it was being used for graduation, so she turned off the lights and let students rest their heads on their desks.

An education department spokesperson declined to address circumstances at individual schools, but cited the instruction to schools to move students to air-conditioned areas.

Still, some parents reported the air conditioning was holding up well. Jennifer Patton, who has two children at an elementary school in Queens, said the air conditioning was on “full blast” at her kids’ school – so much so that her kids decided to bring hoodies in their backpacks.

A new state law stating that school spaces should not be occupied if the internal temperature reaches 88 degrees is set to go into effect starting next September. The Bronx teacher showed Gothamist photos of a thermostat at her school reading 88 degrees Monday.

Some suburban school districts canceled school or called for early dismissals amid the heat wave. But New York City’s calendars, which are tight with the additions of new holidays, leave little wiggle room for closure while still meeting the required number of school days.