Plano West Senior High School remained closed on Monday due to ongoing issues with its air conditioning system.
Plano Independent School District announced in a Facebook post that the school would be closed on Friday, August 25, and Monday, August 28, so maintenance personnel could repair the AC system. The dates will be coded as school closures and will not count against student attendance records, school officials said.
More than 2,700 students are affected by the school’s closure.
It appears that this issue has been ongoing for quite some time. Christina Richards, the parent of an 11th-grade student at the school, told NBC 5 DFW that her teen had been uncomfortable at school the previous week.
“He said his face was dripping with sweat in one of his classes, so I was concerned,” said Richards, according to NBC 5.
High temperatures last week ranged from 103 to 110 degrees in the DFW area, according to the National Weather Service.
The school district announced in the post that “the overall system is not fully functional despite ongoing repairs throughout the weekend.”
“We want to assure families that we are making every effort and have district technicians as well as outside contractors working around the clock to repair the HVAC system,” said the school district in the post. “We will continue to monitor this situation closely and will share another update with parents and staff on Monday, August 28, regarding classes for the remainder of this week.”
A Fall Open House scheduled for August 28 was canceled due to the ongoing repairs. The post said a new date and time for the event would be announced soon. Updates to extra-curricular activities, normally held in the mornings and afternoons, will be communicated through the school’s regular channels.
Plano West Senior High School is not the only school experiencing issues with its air conditioning system. In nearby Fort Worth ISD, 25 schools have grappled with limited or ineffective HVAC systems, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
