Baltimore County Board of Ed votes to spend $10 million on AC, but portable units not assured

The Baltimore County Board of Education has voted to add $10 million to its budget to provide air conditioning to schools that don’t currently have it. And although $10 million is the same amount needed to buy and install portable AC units in the 1,100 BCPS classrooms that lack air conditioning, this money is not tied directly to portable units.

M. Johnson

“I would like to request a one-time, $10 million addition to our budget,” board member Marisol Johnson proposed at the Tuesday meeting. “I’m not comfortable taking away from any of the students or teachers or departments to fund the AC conversion — air conditioning conversion. And I am confident the state government is going to do what they said they’re going to do on the advocacy that they’ve had on funding our — cooling our schools, as they call it. So with this one time $10 million budget addition, I’m hopeful that we can provide an expeditious way of getting air conditioning in our schools.”

When asked by other board members if she intended the money to go toward portable/window units or central air, Johnson replied, “I’m not saying what it’s for.”

But when asked how she chose the $10 million figure, Johnson said, “Some of the information that we were given as a board included a number around $10 million as needed for the portable units, so I thought $10 million was a good starting point.”

A. Miller

There was also a question about who would provide the $10 million — the state or the county. It was noted that any increase in the overall budget could be made without citing a revenue source but that in this case the county would have to include it in its request of any approved one-time items.

“I guess I would want to  know [if the money would go to portable units] in light of the fact that there will be a vote on Jan. 27 to potentially add portable units as something that would be state funded,” said board member Ann Miller. “I guess my first question would be to Dr. Dance, if he’s going to request that.”

State rules prohibit the purchase of portable AC units as a short-term fix, but a Board of Public Works vote on Jan. 27 could change that.

“At this point I don’t think I can speak on pending action that has hasn’t been taken just yet,” replied Dance, who has in the past spoken against portable AC, calling it a Band-Aid solution.

K. Causey

Board member Kathleen Causey then proposed an amendment to Johnson’s motion “to say we are asking that $10 million to go to providing immediate air conditioning units, based on the Anne Arundel Public Schools’ model.”

But Johnson and board member Michael Collins advised against being specific.

M. Collins

“I would think we don’t want to do that, Kathleen. I think it’s a simple statement of the will of the board to keep the pressure on government, period,” Collins said. “We’re not saying which government, we’re not saying how the county executive would find the money, we’re not going anywhere near this dispute between the county executive [Kevin Kamentez] and the governor [Larry Hogan] over window air conditioners — or more precisely the comptroller [Peter Franchot] — over window air conditioners or central air conditioners. [The motion] is just a declarative statement, it’s just a simple clean statement by this board.”

In the end, Johnson’s motion passed with no amendment — meaning there is no directive that the money be spent on portable units.

K. Kamenetz

Kamenetz has said his accelerated plans for cooling all schools would put central air in all BCPS schools by 2021 — or by 2019 if the state would kick in more money. He said in a letter to principals and PTA members that “given the deteriorating condition of the remaining schools in question, window air conditioners do not appear to be a wise choice for Baltimore County. Aging electrical wiring will not accommodate the electrical needs of window units and would require hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement electrical upgrades for a very short-term, ‘band aid’ approach.

“There are other issues as well,” he wrote. “For example, new schools for both Westowne and Catonsville Elementary are currently under construction and will open for students in August 2016. In June 2015, there were four days of school where temperatures exceeded 90 degrees. It would make no sense to upgrade the electrical systems in those schools, install window units for four days and then demolish those same schools a few weeks later. That would simply be fiscally irresponsible.”

On Wednesday, Kamenetz posted on his Facebook page an editorial by The Baltimore Sun titled “Franchot: Full of cold air” and called it an “excellent analysis.”

“It may seem like good politics now for the comptroller (and, to a lesser extent, the governor) to insist that the state should start paying for window units, but matters may look altogether different when those projects displace others,” the editorial states. “How happy will be the parents of Montgomery County students whose teeth are chattering in portable classrooms because of overcrowding? Would the parents of Dulaney High School students rather have portable AC units in classrooms or potable water in the drinking fountains?”

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