THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: Wednesday, May 22, 1996 TAG: 9605220164 SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 44 lines
School officials announced Tuesday that permanent relief is on the way for four of the seven schools closed early this week in a record heat wave because they lack air conditioning.
This fall, Northside Middle and Crossroads, Sherwood Forest and Mary Calcott elementary schools will enter the cool age - with central air conditioning. And the school system will pass a milestone in its long-suffering quest to air-condition all of the city's schools.
The central air conditioning will be installed at the four schools over summer vacation at a cost of about $2 million. The money is coming from a combination of savings in this year's operating budget and from a larger-than-anticipated influx of federal and state dollars, officials said.
Once the work is finished, all 35 of the city's elementary schools will be air-conditioned - Bay View now has portable air conditioning units but will get central air in a planned 1998 renovation.
School officials, under fire from parents, embarked on a plan in the early 1990s to air-condition the city's schools using savings in the operating budget. In 1991, 27 of the city's 48 regular schools lacked air conditioning.
By fall, only three schools will lack air conditioning - Granby High, Norview High and Blair Middle - but they are on schedule to get it during planned renovations over the next five or so years. Students at those schools were dismissed early Tuesday, as were those at Lake Taylor Middle, whose air conditioning system was malfunctioning.
MaryLou Roaseau, the schools' chief financial officer, said most of the savings this year occurred in transportation and maintenance operations.
``It's taken some time, but we've broken it down into bite-size pieces to get it done,'' Roaseau said.
Parents rejoiced - even though some remained skeptical.
Students in Suffolk also will be getting relief. The City Council earlier this year agreed to support plans to install central air beginning this summer in the nine schools without it, said outgoing School Board Chairman Arthur D. Smith.
In Portsmouth, money woes will keep some schools sweating. Sixteen of the city's schools were closed Tuesday because of the heat. Superintendent Richard Trumble said there's no money to install air conditioning.
``It's not even being contemplated,'' Trumble said Tuesday. by CNB