A record Bay Area heat wave pushed classroom temperatures into the 90s, making teaching and learning uncomfortable across Alameda Unified School District. The Bay Area's average temperature rose 1.7°F between 1950 and 2005, and scientists project a further 3.3–4.4°F increase by midcentury, which will worsen classroom conditions. Many California schools are over 25 years old and were not designed for higher temperatures; 15–20% lack functioning classroom HVAC and another 10% need major repairs. The state does not fund school modernization, so AUSD launched a 2024–25 Classroom Heat Mitigation Project and prioritized cost-effective overhead fans.
Last October, the Bay Area experienced a record heat wave, one of a series of unprecedented heat waves over the last several years. As temperatures climbed into the 90s, teaching and learning became uncomfortably challenging in a number of classrooms across the Alameda Unified School District. According to the state of California's fourth Climate Change Assessment, published by UC Berkeley in 2018, the Bay Area's average temperature increased 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit between 1950 and 2005.
As climate change pushes temperatures higher in the coming years (scientists currently project a 3.3- to 4.4-degree increase by midcentury), classroom conditions will likely worsen. The AUSD is not the only school district challenged by rising temperatures. More than two-thirds of schools in this state are at least 25 years old with many much older and most were not built with rising temperatures in mind.
In response to these challenges, the AUSD launched a Classroom Heat Mitigation Project in this past 2024-25 school year. The project included developing a rubric to determine which classrooms already had either air conditioning or fans and which rooms most needed cooling help; piloting the use of fans and air conditioners; projecting costs for fans and/or air conditioning in the classrooms that most needed it; and identifying funding for these cooling strategies.
Collection
[
|
...
]