Mt. Pleasant school officials turn down PTO offer to buy, install air conditioning at elementaries

Mt. Pleasant school officials appreciate an offer from the parent-teacher organization to buy air-conditioning units for its three elementary schools, but according to the school board president, it’s one project too many right now.

“Any new work done in these classrooms could delay the work already being done in the buildings,” said school board President Michael Picarsic.

Having shut down in mid-March along with most everything else school-related, the Mt. Pleasant PTO had unused funding remaining. The group initially approached the district about spending roughly $40,000 to purchase and install 54 window units.

Among the PTO’s concerns about having elementary students wear masks — which is now mandatory all day with the exception of “mask breaks,” according to the latest orders from the state’s health and education departments – is the heat in the elementary buildings, according to Mt. Pleasant PTO President Crystal Helman.

“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.

Picarsic said the board’s property committee and the full board “must recognize the challenging times we’re living in, and the other projects, resource placements and acquisitions the district is planning for prior to the start of school.”

Helman said PTO members don’t feel that is an acceptable response.

“We’ll pursue it for as long as it takes to make them realize how harmful it is for these buildings to not have A/C,” she said. “I’m hoping to have the board justify why they feel it can’t be done when we have worked out a crew to install them.”

Helman said she understands the district still has a lot of work to complete before the start of school, “but they are not working in every room, every day.”

“Friday afternoon when we walked through the buildings with the HVAC company, there was no noticeable maintenance being completed,” she said. “The custodial staff was in the buildings but not working in the areas we were at.”

At the school board meeting Monday, Picarsic said its property committee and elementary administrators will “further investigate classroom cooling solutions in 2020 and make recommendations to the board if such a project is feasible to be targeted in 2021.”

An online petition posted on Change.org regarding the PTO’s offer has gathered more than 800 signatures.

Mt. Pleasant students will return to school Sept. 8.