The Thompson School District is looking at how ceiling fans and portable cooling units would work in some of the schools that are not air-conditioned.
“Small reductions in temperature trends can support learning,” Jess Arnold, environmental specialist, told the school board during a work session Tuesday. “We can really have an impact by bringing temperatures down to promote learning and increase test scores.”
Studies show reducing the temperature by even 1 or 2 degrees can improve learning up to 2%, according to information presented to the school board on Tuesday.
Of 36 buildings in the Thompson School District only 13 schools are fully cooled, many built during a time when cooling was not prioritized. Three locations have partial cooling.
There are no state mandates for cooling as there are for heating, but district officials acknowledge that cooling can boost learning on hot days.
Students are in school 173 days each year. A recent district study showed that 24 days reached temperatures where cooling may have been needed, according to information before the board. Six days were 90 degrees or higher and 18 days were between 80 degrees and 90 degrees.
“About 10% of the school year is what we consider as impacted days; 90% are not impacted days,” said Superintendent Marc Schaffer. “The 10% of days are difficult, and that’s why we’re exploring this. … We wouldn’t be taking on this study if we weren’t concerned about staff and student comfort.”
Currently, the district works to cool buildings with what Todd Piccone, chief operations officer, described as a “nighttime air purge.” This means the district brings in cooler air in the evening and then closes the dampers to avoid a rush of warmer air as the day heats up.
But now, building and environmental specialists are looking at other options. They are studying ways to cool certain spaces within buildings, such as the hottest classrooms, south-facing rooms and areas with more student activity. They will create a plan for ways to cool these spaces, looking at controlling costs and studying overall installation and maintenance costs.
“There’s not really one size fits all,” Piccone said. “It’s looking at all the individual spaces.”
The options that the district is looking at, according to information given to the school board Tuesday, are ceiling fans, portable cooling units and a mini-split air conditioning system. Mini-split air conditioners are ductless systems that have an outdoor compressor and indoor air-handling units to control the temperatures in individual rooms or spaces.
The costs range from $1,500 per fan to $9,000 per cooling unit to $15,000 for a mini-split system, according to figures Piccone shared with the school board.
District building specialists will look at the best way to piece those options together to prioritize achievement but also to be as careful as possible with money. Piccone said he will bring a plan — with an overall price tag — to the board in the near future to test these options at four schools.
The pilot schools will be Bill Reed Middle School, Berthoud High School, Loveland High School and Ivy Stockwell Elementary School, and the plan will be a menu of different options customized to the different spaces that need cooling in each school.
The district is not looking at adding air-conditioning units to the existing schools because that would cost $140 million, which the district cannot afford, according to Piccone.
The cooling options should be in place by next school year. The district will evaluate how they are working from both facilities and educational standpoints before deciding whether to spread the cooling program into other schools. Schaffer said the district will assess the units’ capabilities “considering the return on investment and being mindful of cost.”
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February 28, 2020 at 10:16AM
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Thompson looking at ceiling fans, portable units to cool schools - Loveland Reporter-Herald
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