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Lawmaker Calls for Accounting of Un-Air Conditioned Schools

photo of air conditioning units
SHUTTERSTOCK

High temperatures this week have led a number of schools to cancel classes in buildings that don't have air conditioning. One state lawmaker would like to know just how many buildings that is. 

Republican House Education Committee chair Andy Brenner says he’s not sure the state actually has information about how many school buildings in the state are air conditioned. And even if it did, he doesn’t think it’s the state’s obligation to make sure they are.

“I’m not sure what the cost would be to retrofit buildings because you would have to deal with a lot of buildings that may be 100 years old and it may not be possible to retrofit them.”

Brenner says local districts should be the ones to decide whether they want to add air conditioning. He says schools have the option of taking calamity days, with lost time made up before school ends for the summer.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.