As temperatures warm up, students at one East Bay school is really feeling the heat.
Richard Snaith, a teacher at Pinole Valley High School, said the school's Air conditioners have been pumping heat into classrooms instead of cool air on hot days. And he says it's been happening for years.
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WATCH HERE“On the worst day it feels like you're in a sauna. You've got 38 kids in a class and heat is being pumped into that classroom,” he said.
Snaith, who teaches Spanish and history, said the school's HVAC system hasn't been working properly for the past five years, over-cooling some classrooms while pumping heat into others even on hot days .
“It definitely impacts learning imagine you're a kid you're trying to learn something new. The room is 80°. It's 90° possibly so your whole mentality is going to change,” he said.
Students tell us it's definitely an issue. And they say it's making it tough to concentrate on their lessons.
“It can be distracting if I’m too hot I don’t feel like doing stuff in class and I can’t retain information. I am learning,” said Hailey Lira, Senior.
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Snaith said that heat can indeed impact learning. He added his students are visibly sluggish when the temperature spikes. He and other teachers have fans running but it's not enough.
“On the worst day people are absolutely sweating,” he said. “Kids are heads down on the desks it's really hard to tell a kid, hey I need you to put forth that effort when any complaint about the heat is legitimate.”
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SIGN UP The West Contra Unified School District insisted it's committed to maintaining safe and comfortable learning environments.
They released the following statement Tuesday: "The HVAC system has undergone repairs over the past year and continues to be serviced and balanced as part of our ongoing maintenance process. Currently, the system is meeting the district’s standard temperature range of 68 to 74 degrees in most instructional spaces."
Meanwhile, Snaith sent NBC Bay Area a snapshot of his room at 78 degrees on Monday. He acknowledged that repair crews have responded over the years but claimed it's still much too hot.
“We need a fix,” he said. “Please fix the AC units."
