With B.C. baking in an early-season heat wave, two New Westminster school trustees are calling for air conditioning in school portables.
And with average temperatures expected to rise along with climate change, it’s a situation they say will only grow more serious in the years to come.
It’s an issue that isn’t theoretical for eight-year-old Frankie Kwong, whose classroom is one of the New Westminster School District’s 53 portables.
When it’s hot out, Kwong says it’s hard to learn.
“It’s distracting and it’s very sweaty and it makes my back itchy and my teacher added a fan but, we’re not allowed to go close to it,” he told Global News.
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New Westminster’s portables don’t have air conditioning. The cost to install them has been estimated at $1.3 million, but the district says it could be much higher now, thanks to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff and trade war.
While some of the portables have AC units on their roofs, upgrading the local power grid to activate them would also be cost-prohibitive.
“There’s more than 1,000 kids in portables each day in our district … It’s too much it’s too hot,” said New Westminster School Trustee Kathleen Carlsen.
Carlsen is one of two district trustees asking the B.C. government for dedicated funding for cooling and ventilation systems in schools, with a priority on portables.
“There needs to be more funding put towards this,” B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Clint Johnston said.
“It shouldn’t be a question of can we afford to make the conditions in classrooms bearable for students to learn in.”
“As long as I’ve been active in this provincial advocacy space, there has been no forward progress on addressing overheating in portables,” Parent Advisory Council member Laura Kwong said. “It’s well overdue.”
The B.C. Educaiton Ministry redirected questions to the Infrastructure Ministry.
Minister Bowinn Ma was not available for an on-camera interview.
“Students and staff deserve to learn and work in safe, comfortable environments. That’s why we have been working urgently to expand and upgrade seats across the province,” Ma said in a statement.
“Over the last seven years, the Province has invested almost $6 billion in schools to create over 80,000 student seats that are either completed or underway – all of which meet modern building standards.”
The ministry added it had spent $150 million in the last three years to upgrade heating, ventilation and air-conditioning in B.C. schools, but noted districts are responsible for managing their own facilities and budgets beyond that.
In the meantime, students like Kwong are left to get through the sweaty school day.
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