Union advocacy brings relief from classroom heat

s hot, stuffy classrooms filled with students again this fall, educators and parents renewed their call for Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign the classroom heat bill into law.

In June, after NYSUT “brought the heat” to lawmakers — in the very real form of a portable sauna tent set up outside their Albany offices — they passed bill S.3397 (Skoufis)/A.9011 (Eachus) to set maximum temperatures in school buildings. The bill, which passed the Legislature with overwhelming bipartisan support, requires schools to implement practical measures to manage extreme heat but does not call for districts to make mandatory investments in costly HVAC systems or resort to school closures.

If classrooms reach a temperature of 82 degrees or higher, districts must have a plan in place to cool temperatures, including turning off lights, pulling down shades, using fans and other methods. If a classroom’s temperature reaches 88 degrees, districts need to find an alternative learning location that is cooler for the safety of students and staff.

“Extreme heat is a real danger to our students and educators, and we applaud state legislators for witnessing, experiencing and now acknowledging the severity of its impact in our schools,” said NYSUT President Melinda Person.

Now, nearly four months later, the bill is still awaiting the governor’s signature.

For Amy Kochan, president of the Teachers Association of Cheektowaga-Sloan and her members, classroom heat is a so-called “hot button issue” and one that they have already begun organizing around.

“The bill is just perfect timing for us,” Kochan said. “It gives us an opportunity to have those discussions with the superintendent right now, and to say, ‘This is coming your way. Let’s start to make these changes now, so that we’re all set for the future.’”

Kochan said her district has four buildings, all without adequate climate control, and all subject to soaring temperatures in the spring and summer and plunging temperatures in the winter.

“We began to collect data and chart the temperatures in our classrooms so now we have a full year’s worth of data from all four of our buildings,” Kochan said. She and her members will use that as fodder for their campaign. Kochan and her team also plan to help the district identify potential funding sources for the project. “We know there is financial help out there to improve our working conditions and our students’ learning conditions,” she said.

Kochan believes that careful planning and patience will be the key to success. “Last year, when we decided this was the campaign that we wanted to start to work on, we knew it was a long game,” said Kochan. “We knew it was going to take time and effort, and that there were probably multiple phases to our campaign, but we knew it was worth it.”

That’s also how Kevin Toolan felt. Toolan is president of the Patchogue-Medford Congress of Teachers and a member of the NYSUT Board. His local drafted the first NYSUT resolution to address heat in the classroom back in 2016. Since then, he and his members have worked diligently to create better learning conditions for their students.

“The excessive heat we were seeing across our district was not conducive to learning,” said Toolan, adding that last September, classroom thermometers in his district clocked temperatures of 104 and 107. “In conditions like those, teachers shift their focus from teaching to safety,” he said.

This past May, their member advocacy finally paid off when voters passed a proposition to overhaul the district’s HVAC systems.

“We did a lot of behind the scenes work to get this passed, and we used our VOTE-COPE dollars to actively engage the community,” Toolan said. From door-knocking to stakeholder committees, Patchogue-Medford members put in the time to make the proposal a reality, he said.

Educators in Williamsville are also celebrating a victory in their fight against excessive classroom temperatures, after voters passed a proposition in May to add air conditioning to all six of the district’s elementary schools. The first phase of the project is expected to begin this January.

NYSUT Board member Michelle Licht, president of the Williamsville TA, said her members lobbied hard to get this project passed and that air conditioning will transform the learning environment.

With temperatures in late May and June often topping out at 89 degrees and humidity further aggravating the issue, it is not unusual for educators and students to spend the last couple of months of the school year soaked in sweat.

“It’s miserable,” Licht said. “We will definitely see an improvement in student learning and engagement once the air conditioning is installed.”

Tell Gov. Hochul: Do something about extreme heat in schools! Visit nysut.org/heat.