District 25 still not warming to air conditioning decision
Those at the Arlington Heights Elementary District 25 meeting Thursday received a firsthand demonstration of one of the air conditioning options available to the district.
A portable air unit that is sometimes used in classrooms was set up to show the difference between that and the normal unit in the meeting room.
Ken Roiland, director of facilities management, said while the portable unit will cool a room, it's also competing with the outside air that has to be let into the room, making it inefficient.
"It'll take the edge off," he said, but won't completely cool down a room. However, to outfit the whole district with the units would cost $60,000 -- a sharp difference from the $13 million it would take to put regular air conditioning in the district .
The next board meeting on Aug. 9 will include demonstrations of two other types of air coolers -- a ceiling and window unit -- used in the district at Patton School, Roiland said.
The board is still divided on whether to spend $13 million to air condition all nine schools, spend less money on alternative devices or only spend money at the middle schools and the second or third floors of elementary schools, since those floors have higher temperatures.
The district said it would cost $960,000 to air condition the second floor of the kindergarten through fifth-grade buildings and $4.3 million for the middle schools.
"I don't know how you can use money as the only criteria," said board member Charles Williams. He said the district would not have done many projects, such as expanding schools, if the board were only concerned about money.
However, board vice president David Page said many would see air conditioning as a luxury that would only be in use for a few weeks out of the school year.
"I just think about what we could do with $10 million," he said.
The board on Thursday decided to study the issue more at upcoming meetings and agreed not to rush a decision. The members also said they'd like to hear directly from the students and staff before voting on the issue.