Staff at North Las Vegas school dispute air conditioning problem

Students and staff at J.D. Smith Middle School in North Las Vegas who have endured an uncomfortably hot first week of school because of a faulty air conditioning system are disputing the school district’s contention that the problem was caused by last weekend’s storm.

District spokesperson Mauricio Marin on Wednesday told the Review-Journal that maintenance crews had partly restored the air conditioning and indicated that Saturday’s storm appeared to have pushed the system at the school built in 1952 over the edge.

But teachers at the school who contacted the Review-Journal after that article ran said the system was not working when staff came back to school last week. In fact, they said, the air conditioning at the school has been a problem for years.

The teachers, who asked to remain anonymous, also said they are the ones providing fans to keep the classrooms as cool as possible.

Marin said that the system was functioning Thursday and that maintenance crews were monitoring the system but didn’t have to do any further work on it. He said one classroom remained slightly warmer than the others.

But one of the teachers said many parts of the school were still not being cooled on Thursday.

The district declined a request from the Review-Journal to visit the school.

Adcock Elementary School in Las Vegas also was struggling with a balky air conditioning system on Thursday after suffering a power outage early Thursday morning. Although power was returned to the school by the first bell, facilities workers were working to fix the air conditioning, according to a district spokesperson.

Contact Amelia Pak-Harvey at apak-harvey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4630. Follow @AmeliaPakHarvey on Twitter.