Beecher's rental "chiller," on site on Tuesday.
Beecher School’s permanent air-conditioning system is still busted, and won’t be replaced for several more months.
But a rental “chiller” is being installed this week — and classes should be able to take place as planned starting with next Monday’s beginning of the new school year.
That’s the building-maintenance latest at L. W. Beecher Museum Magnet School of Arts and Sciences at 100 Jewell St.
Last June, the PreK-8th Grade school building’s “chiller” stopped working at full capacity, disrupting classes towards the end of the most recent New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) academic year.
According to NHPS spokesperson Justin Harmon, these two months later, the chiller is still broken. But a rental unit is being installed on Tuesday or Wednesday, and students should be able to return to in-person classes for the start of the new school year on Aug. 29.
Here’s what Harmon told the Independent on Tuesday about Beecher School’s persistent air-conditioning troubles: “The chiller was working at something like 50 percent capacity over the summer, and attempts were being made to repair it. Then it failed completely. A rental chiller will be in place until the permanent one can be installed in a few months.”
He also said: “Installation of the rental chiller will be completed today or tomorrow at the latest, so there will be no impact on the opening of school.”
In a separate phone interview with the Independent on Tuesday, city teachers union President Leslie Blatteau said, “We have ongoing concerns about the HVAC systems in our schools,” she said, referring to the school system’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. “We want to make sure that they have been repaired, monitored, and continue to be taken care of.”
Even though the summer is almost over, she said, the city could get hit with a heat wave in the fall. If the air-conditioning system isn’t working at full capacity then, she said, that’s “going to create headaches for the people who learn and teach in those communities” without fully working HVAC systems.
“I want to trust that things will be working on the first day of school and the first day of work,” Blatteau said. And, if the chiller at Beecher and if other HVAC systems across the district aren’t working, she called on teachers union members to reach out to her and the district and to speak out about those problems.