FOX31 Denver

Why so many schools don’t have air conditioning

Vicente Arenas

DENVER (KDVR) — Some people have asked why so many Denver Public Schools campuses do not have air conditioning after a bond election passed to fund the units.

Twenty-four schools received funding from a $795 million bond that voters passed in 2020.

The money is being used for a wide range of repairs and renovations at schools including air conditioning. But work won’t start on new cooling systems at nine of them until next year.  

“As you can imagine it’s a huge expense to fund air conditioning and with all of the other needs throughout the district. We still have boilers and chillers that are out (among other things). So there are a lot of other funding needs throughout the district,” Executive Director of Facilities Trena Marsal said.

New air conditioning systems have been installed in seven schools. Units are being put in on another eight campuses now.

There are 31 DPS schools, like Godsman, that have plans for AC but no funding.

Campuses affected without air conditioning during heat wave

Several DPS schools have altered their schedules or closed completely during the next couple of days, as the city is expected to have record-breaking high temperatures.

Here’s a list of all schools affected:

The following schools will be closed all day due to the heat:

Temperatures will stay in the upper 90s Wednesday and Thursday of this week before a cooldown to the 60s and 70s by Saturday.