First Round of Schools to Receive Air Conditioning

Deborah Bayliss | As of Wednesday, May 7, 2014

As part of a five-year plan, 57 Chicago Public Schools will have air conditioning for the 2014-2015 school. The first phase of the plan is expected to cost approximately $20 million, and approximately $20 million each subsequent year. Some schools received air conditioning in the 2013-2014 school year.
As part of a five-year plan, 57 Chicago Public Schools will have air conditioning for the 2014-2015 school. The first phase of the plan is expected to cost approximately $20 million, and approximately $20 million each subsequent year. Some schools received air conditioning in the 2013-2014 school year.

Students every summer for over 50 years, sat in classrooms with no air conditioning even on sweltering, 90 degree days. Last week, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett, announced, the first phase of a five-year plan to provide air conditioning to every classroom.

“Air conditioning is one of the classroom resources CPS is investing in in their capital budget to provide positive, comfortable learning environments for every student to be 100 percent college-ready and 100 percent college-bound,” Mayor Emanuel said. “This investment will also mean that the 42,000 CPS students who attend summer programs will have a safe, cool place to be during those months when they are either in summer school or a summer program.”

Installation is scheduled to begin this summer, and CPS reportedly will work around summer school schedules to avoid disruption of instructional time. 

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Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett, announced last week, the first phase of a five-year plan to provide air conditioning to every classroom.

As part of this plan, 57 schools will now have all classrooms air conditioned for the 2014-2015 school year with the first phase of the plan expected to cost approximately $20 million, and approximately $20 million each subsequent year. 

 “This investment is consistent with what parents, teachers and principals agree students need in the classrooms and will better allow students and teachers to do the work they need to do to succeed,” CEO Bryd-Bennett said. “Bringing air conditioning to all of our schools has been discussed for over 50 years and we are finally able to deliver by putting forth a strategic investment plan over a five-year period. “ 

The 57 schools to receive classroom air conditioning this summer are distributed throughout the City and are primarily schools with the highest need that are currently without any air conditioning in the building or with only partial air conditioning. 

This investment in air conditioning is part of CPS’s larger FY15 capital plan that includes funding for repairs, upgrades, and school improvements across the District.

The list of schools receiving air conditioning this school year, include:

John Barry Elementary School
Newton Bateman Elementary School Hiram H Belding Elementary School Daniel Boone Elementary School Norman A. Bridge Elementary School Lyman A. Budlong Elementary School Burnside Elementary Scholastic Academy Jonathan Burr Elementary School Marvin Camras Elementary School Rachel Carson Elementary School Henry R. Clissold Elementary School Christopher Columbus Elementary School Stephen Decatur Classical Elementary School James R. Doolittle Elementary School Fairfield Elementary Academy Christian Fenger Academy High School Fernwood Elementary School Melville W. Fuller Elementary School Frank L. Gillespie Elementary School Johann W. von Goethe Elementary School William C. Goudy Elementary School 

Schools that received air conditioning in 2013-14 included: Ira F Aldridge Elementary School, Alice L. Barnard Computer Math & Science Center Elementary School, Clara Barton, Elementary School, Perkins Bass Elementary School, Ludwig Van Beethoven Elementary School, Carrie Jacobs Bond Elementary School, Bowen High School, Lorenz Brentano Math & Science Academy Elementary School, Edmond Burke Elementary School, Burnham Elementary Inclusive Academy (K-8), William W Carter Elementary School, George Washington Carver Primary School, Rosario Castellanos Elementary School, Salmon P. Chase Elementary School, and Frederic Chopin Elementary School.

For a full list of schools, please visit the Chicago Public Schools website at www.cps.edu.

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