It seems like school starts earlier every year — many kids across Arizona are already in back-to-school mode now, at the very beginning of August. And it’s hot — much hotter than summers past, with records being broken each year.
So, how are Arizona schools keeping kids cool — on buses and in classrooms in the hottest parts of the state?
To find out, The Show spoke to Cole Young, superintendent of the Mohave Valley School District — a rural district northwest of the Valley, not far from Needles, California — which just broke Phoenix’s record for the hottest monthly temperature in a U.S. city this July.
Full conversation
COLE YOUNG: So we're kind of in the tri-city area when it comes to Needles and Laughlin, Bullhead City. And we're just 17 miles south of Bullhead City. So Death Valley is only two hours away. We've got about 400 kids. We're a K-8 school district.
LAUREN GILGER: You mentioned you're not far from Death Valley. So we should not assume that because you're a little further north than us in the state of Arizona that it is not very hot there, I'm assuming.
YOUNG: It is. Yeah, we, we get plenty of heat. When we have a day that's under 100, we think it's a very cool day, maybe time for a shawl or something.
GILGER: And, and is it like we're seeing here in the Valley are schools opening starting earlier in the year? I mean, many kids in Phoenix in the area here have already started school and it's barely August.
YOUNG: Yeah, Shazam. We're on day four ourselves. So we are already navigating buses being out in this heat and making sure that kids are taken care of and not leaving them at bus stops too long and making sure HVACs are up and running, but really there's no landing gear on this plane. So we, we continue to monitor that all summer long with our summer programs and pieces of that nature.
GILGER: Yeah. So talk about that, the challenges that starting school in late July, early August, like the depths of the very hot Arizona summer, right? What does that mean in terms of schools and, and infrastructure and funding?
YOUNG: No, it's a, it's a, it's, it's a difficult challenge because we have in our school district, roughly 130, 140 air conditioners that range from 1997 all the way up until current. And so as you look at those older models, albeit that they’re tried and true. It's not if, it's when they go down. So we, we, we're constantly monitoring that piece. So those are, those are challenges in our area.
GILGER: Do you see them give out after, you know, being operating for 20-30 years here often? Is this a …
YOUNG: Absolutely.
GILGER: Do you have the money to replace them?
YOUNG: Well, that's, that's an interesting question. Yes and no, because we, we used to have school facilities in which we had money for building renewal. That's no longer in Arizona. We now go through the schools facilities division and that means that we have to request money through an emergency.
But when it's 124 degrees you. When you think Phoenix, you think hot, but when you think Mojave Valley in your car you'll get in, it'll be 132 degrees. It'll be 1 24 out. So the dependency we have on making sure we expedite changing out air conditioners is, is huge when it comes to our infrastructure and keeping kids out of the heat.
GILGER: Man. Yeah, you mentioned school buses. I know there have been complaints on school buses from parents. And are you able to keep those cool on sometimes longer rides?
YOUNG: It's a great question. We, yes and no because you know, that's a tin can and when it's 125 out, you have to feel like, what is appropriate, what isn't it? You know, if we can get those buses down to 85 degrees, we've won the day, but it doesn't feel like that, so very difficult to do that. We, we actually won an EPA clean bus grant. We have electric buses that are coming and are supposedly handle the air conditioning much better.
GILGER: So, do you get complaints from parents, worries from parents, complaints from kids about the heat? Do you just try to keep them inside all day? How do you deal with it?
YOUNG: Well, you know, we, we look at the heat index and we kind of gravitate around that 100 to 110 and then we try to monitor the amount of time in which they're out. The access to hydration, making sure that they're taken care of, wellness is number one overall. So it's just dependent on the day and, and how much humidity and how high the temperature index really is.
GILGER: Are there some challenges here you think that are unique to rural school districts that we might not see in schools here in the Valley?
YOUNG: Absolutely. When it comes to just our, the infrastructure of, of vendors, you gotta remember this is tax season for them. All those HVAC companies, we're not the only ones that HVACs are going down. So when we compete to try to get our HVACs replaced, we are, we are leaning on the same vendors over and over again to try to make that happen.
And in the most part they have done a phenomenal job, but the procurement process kind of wears out our vendors when it comes to making sure we have three quotes and then they don't get it and they have to quote again. So there is definite, there's definite challenges in making sure that we keep the community going as well as all of our schools.
GILGER: So talk a little bit lastly here, Cole, just about what you need. Like, is this a funding problem? Is it a staffing problem? What would make it easier?
YOUNG: You know, I think that if, if we truly had the opportunity to look at the air conditioners that we have and be able to say they need to be replaced. When you look at a 25-year-old air conditioner. I, I feel like if, if the state would say instead it has to break, if there was a threshold or reserve study that would allow us to change it out before it fails because inevitably it doesn't fail during the summer, we keep them on all year long because we're afraid to shut them down. But if, if we could get items replaced before they fail, when we know they're going to that, that would help us out immensely.
GILGER: 30-year-old air conditioners. Yeah.
