‘It’s just inescapable’: Toronto teachers seek relief from hot classrooms

As climate change worsens extreme weather conditions, the lack of air conditioning in many classes has become a heated issue amongst concerned students, parents and teachers, who say school boards and governments need to address the problem.

The Toronto District School Board says 177 out of 582 schools have central air conditioning. The remaining have cooling centres, which are designated areas with air conditioning, such as gymnasiums or libraries.

When asked about high temperatures in its schools, a TDSB spokesperson pointed to the board’s previous public statements on hot weather.

“The installation of full building air conditioning at all remaining schools is not financially possible,” the school board has said, noting its $4.2 billion repair backlog.

The Toronto Catholic District School Board cited similar financial limits and said it “has made it a priority” that schools have at least one cooling area.

“The annual renewal funding provided to boards is not sufficient to allow the retrofitting of schools that do not have air conditioning,” it wrote in a statement, noting there are plans to analyze excessive heat in TCDSB classrooms.

The TCDSB is also currently piloting outdoor misting stations at 12 of its schools to provide relief for their students.

Daniela Mendez, a civics teacher at a TDSB high school without air-conditioned classrooms, said when she and her colleagues raise concerns about high temperatures with administration, they’re told to ensure students stay hydrated and are referred to one of the cooling centres.

Michelle Teixeira, president of the Toronto bargaining unit for the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said the cooling centres often aren’t sufficient for dealing with classroom heat and can only do so much.

“I don’t think it’s adequate in most cases, because we’re looking at high schools that often have upwards of a thousand students in them … it’s not feasible for any kind of sustained break to take place for a class or for students in the library,” she said.

Teixeira said the union has often raised the issue of hot classrooms to the school board but hasn’t been given many solutions. She said part of the problem is that the Occupational Health and Safety Act has no maximum temperature limit, so school boards aren’t required to mandate maximum allowable temperatures in classes.

A spokesperson for Education Minister Todd Smith said the provincial government has invested millions to improve ventilation in schools, but the responsibility of managing school heat protocols falls to the school boards.

“While the ministry provides funding, it is the responsibility of the school board to have protocols in place as to how they deal with heat in schools, as well as addressing school renewal needs and requirements,” Isha Chaudhuri wrote in a statement.

NDP education critic Chandra Pasma called the provincial government’s deferral to school boards “shameful” and urged the education minister to take action.

“We know that this government could address this problem today through dedicated funds to improve school infrastructure and investing in air quality and regulation,” Pasma wrote in a statement.

For Beatrice, it all comes down to what’s being done to address the issue right now, which she says is not much.

“They’re not doing anything to fix the temperature of the classrooms or to bring in proper air conditioning to the room,” she said. “This is a really big problem.”