As extreme heat cancels classes, climate change prompts Oregon schools to consider AC upgrades

Extreme heat over the Portland metro area prompted several school districts to release their students early or cancel classes completely on Friday due to a lack of air conditioning units.

School officials and environmental groups connect the absence of AC systems to a lack of funding for school modernization. They suggest such investment is needed to avoid heat-related school closures in the future and to better protect students as the climate crisis continues.

On Friday, temperatures continued to climb throughout most parts of the state prompting an excessive heat warning.

That led Portland Public Schools to send students home from schools that lacked air conditioning three hours early Friday, while North Clackamas schools canceled classes entirely. The moves serve as a reminder that older schools in the region lack air conditioning units due to the normally mild Pacific Northwest temperatures during the school year.

Now, temperatures are increasing around the globe due to the burning of fossil fuels that cause extreme weather. In places like Portland, the sweltering heat locks high temperatures inside the decades-old school buildings, with some classrooms reaching beyond 90 degrees.

Research shows extreme weather events are already impacting the mental health of young Oregonians. Heat can also affect students’ cognitive development and could lead to reduced learning, according to a Harvard Kennedy School study.

Only 15 of the 81 schools in Oregon’s largest school district have AC units or an HVAC system capable of providing heating, ventilation and air conditioning. Most of the PPS schools with HVAC systems have gone through complete rebuilds with funding from voter-approved bonds, like the $1.2 billion bond passed in 2020. That bond has set aside $75 million to install HVAC systems in schools where the mechanical systems are in critical condition.

But there’s still a need for more funding to address extreme weather events.

“If there is a silver bullet to heat waves, it’s being able to add mechanical cooling to all buildings,” PPS Chief Operating Officer Dan Jung said. “The challenge with that is that it’s very expensive to do and lots of requirements, especially when you have the age and conditions of buildings that PPS has.”

On average, most PPS school buildings are about 80 years old, Jung said. Many of the buildings need upgrades but a lack of funding has delayed those plans.

“If we are going to take this much further, the district will need to continue to invest in mechanical upgrades in future bonds,” he said.

Bonds are one of a few pathways schools can take to get money for upgrades like adding HVAC systems or solar panels to generate renewable energy.

Initiatives like the Portland Clean Energy Fund could be another pathway for funding for Portland-based school districts to upgrade their buildings with energy-efficient retrofits.

Earlier this year, PCEF awarded $50 million to seven school districts in Portland. The money will fund projects like energy-efficient retrofits for older buildings, including HVAC systems. The funds could also go toward installing solar panels and energy-efficient appliances, purchasing electric school buses, and increasing tree canopy in schoolyards.

PPS alone could see nearly $20 million in PCEF funding.

But it could take up to five years to retrofit a school, from planning, design and construction to completion, Jung said.

Sometimes costs can increase as a school goes through the modernization process.

Jung said there could be other changes needed, like upgrading the electrical system to support new technologies.

“We have very, very limited dollars to go and complete work,” he said.

Quick solutions, like adding smaller AC units, come with limitations and tradeoffs, he said. For instance, a school’s electrical system may not have enough power to support a new HVAC without being upgraded. Window units can also be a hazard, he said and smaller units do not last long enough and need to be replaced more frequently.

Overall, Jung said, quick solutions have limited benefits and do not address everything needed to make the school safer during extreme weather events.

“We are making improvements and we are always looking for ways to find good short-term, middle-term and long-term solutions,” he said.

Next year, four schools will have new HVAC systems, Jung said.

Districts like Portland can’t hope for a lot of help from the state. The Oregon Department of Education has a limited pool of matching funds it can provide to districts that pass bonds — and in the most recent grant cycle, no district received more than $8 million. ODE has programs to survey the level of need, and it’s working on ways to bring in more private funds to finance HVAC and energy efficiency projects.

The financial and logistical barriers to lowering the temperature inside schools during heat waves are not unique to Portland. A push for available federal funding and a statewide strategy to fund energy-efficient upgrades is currently lacking, Oregon Environmental Council executive director Jana Gastellum said.

“In the meantime, that means a lot of schools and parents, family and teachers are left scrambling when we have these extreme heat or wildfire smoke events,” she said.

Gastellum said climate change needs to be at the forefront in all state planning and strategies to help solve multiple issues at the same time.

“Extreme heat is a part of the fabric of our state,” she said. “We need to do intentional planning.”