Chicago Public Schools Take Away Air Conditioners

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Aug 19, 2008 5:15PM

While the Chicago area has been blessed by an unusually mild August, a dozen Chicago-area schools are struggling to stay cool as the CPS has removed air conditioning units from classrooms. The schools affected are: Earle, Banneker, Brownell, Dixon, Fiske, Hinton, Reavis, Revere, Yale, Woods, Whistler and Wentworth. Over 400 air conditioning units have been removed since the start of the summer, leaving teachers and students to depend on fans to keep temps down. CPS Chief Officer of School Coordination Jackie Anderson blames lack of funding, saying the lease to keep the units was $1 million. "For that lease to be extended it would cost us about a quarter of million and we don't have the funding." Officials promise that a new cheaper, permanent system will be in place by next school year. No word yet on whether or not officials plan to cut costs further by replacing heating units with bonfires this winter.