In Alum Rock classrooms, kids turn into ‘melted cheese’ – The Mercury News

SAN JOSE Despite promises of relief from frigid and stifling temperatures in some Alum Rock classrooms, students at three schools will spend another year wilting during heat waves and shivering during cold spells.

Why cant we just take care of the AC and heat instead of money going to those new projects? asked Jocelyn Merz, head of the teachers union.

In 2012, Alum Rock voters passed a $125 million bond measure to address facilities needsthatspecifically mentionedreplacing heating, ventilation and electrical systems. Last year they approved another measure, generating $140 million.

Payments to its construction projects manager have triggered two investigations of Alum Rock. A state agency that reviews troubled districts is expected to deliver its report soon. And emails released to this news organization after a Public Records Act request confirm that the Santa Clara County District Attorneys Office also is looking into the district.

The lack of cooling and heatmay seem trivial, especiallyin the temperate Bay Area. But it affects teaching and learning, particularly in classrooms facing the beating afternoon sun.

Just how uncomfortable is it?

Its superhot, third-grader Victor Romero, 9, said last week Its like a barbecue and were the meat on it.

Victor and his pals at Arbuckle, which has no air-conditioning, said they sometimes wet paper towels to put on their foreheads to cool off.

In the winter, parents send their children to school bundledin layers because of the sporadically functioning heater. Some days, kids never take off their mittens.

I just take off the right hand one to write, Victor said, explaining how he does schoolwork wearing gloves.

Its very frustrating when you go in to teach and your hands are ice cold and you wear your coat all day long, said Darlene Coachman, an Arbuckle teacher. There shouldnt be days like that.

Parents, too, have complained to the school and district.

Weve said that the heat and the bathrooms are broken, said Arbuckle parent Maria Obregon. Theyve said that theres no money.

Thats not exactly the case. The district currently has $24.2 million in bond proceedsin an account with Santa Clara County, Controller Treasurer Alan Minato said.

Its more a matter of priorities.

The heating-cooling project at each of the three schools is estimated to cost $4.48 million.

Although the 2012 Measure J specified facility repairs like roofs, electrical systems, bathrooms and technology, the measure also allowed for acquiring sites and building facilities. Thats what the Alum Rock school board decided to do, when in 2015 it approved constructing new multipurpose rooms at Fischer and George middle schools and renovating a gym near Mathson Middle.

Together, those projects will cost $35.4 million, not including a new parking lot for what will be a multipurpose room for Mathson. Theprojects have drained the remaining 2012 Measure J funds and will draw on proceeds from 2016 Measure I.

Construction is expected to begin imminently on the Mathson and Fischer projects.

The heating and air conditioning projects for the three elementary schools have been bumped down in priority. Theywere approved by the board in January, construction manager Luis Rojas explained, and await state approval before being put out to bid. Rojas is CEO of the Southern California-based Del Terra group, which is earning $2.47 million as the program manager, overseeing bond spending in Alum Rock. Del Terra also manages specific construction projects, for which it earns additional fees.

These projects could not be done during the school year, Rojas said, because they are too disruptive to schools.

Only two elementary schools, Dorsa and Lucha, will get new heating-cooling systems this summer. And, portable ventilators now in those schools will be moved in July to Arbuckle, Cureton and McCollam, according to Kolvira Chheng, Alum Rocks assistant superintendent of business services.

Its not clearhow construction decisions are made and work prioritized in Alum Rock, and a recent facilities needs assessment has not been done.

Ive been asking for this for at least four years, trustee Karen Martinez said. As for deciding what to do first, she said, It should be really simple. Some things arent working, then we should work to fix them.

Currently, Rojascompiles a list of projects and presents theirstatus to a committee of residents and trustees led by board member Dolores Marquez. Its weekday noon meetings, set by Marquez, are sparsely attended.

Raymond Mueller, who heads the citizens oversight committee charged with reviewing bond expenditures, asked that the meetings be rescheduled to a time more accessible to working people.

Committee member and trustee Andres Quintero, who cannot make the meetings, also has asked that the group meet at other times. Only three of five committee members attended the May 19 meeting.

In the meantime, in response to complaints about hot classrooms, the district has provided each Arbuckle teacher with a desktop fan. Some teachers bring oscillating floor fans for their classes. They turn down the lights, ask students to bring plenty of water and cram their lessons into the early morning hours before the heat saps kids energy and attention.

On hot days, my students are like melted cheese.said one Arbuckle teacher who did not want her name used out of fear of retaliation.

You wouldnt leave a child in a hot car because youd be called out on it, she said. Yet we allow our kids to sit in these classrooms where its absolutely boiling,

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In Alum Rock classrooms, kids turn into 'melted cheese' - The Mercury News