HVAC

College is in. The warmth is out.


If San Francisco public school teacher Sabeena Shah was hoping to offer her students an example of “irony” that doesn’t include diabetics racing to the pharmacy and being struck by insulin trucks, she got one in her inbox on Jan. 18. 

“Attn Staff,” read the message to John O’Connell High School’s educators. “The boiler room is down, a work order was placed yesterday afternoon. Hopefully they will be out to fix the machine. Will keep everyone posted.”

In short order, the thermometer in Shah’s classroom read 52 degrees. 

“Sometimes it’s colder in the room than when I’m outside in the atrium,” says O’Connell 11th grader Aaliyah Hernandez. “I don’t even know how that’s possible. It just makes it so hard to focus. You’re only focused on being cold and getting warm. People bring their blankets and they fall asleep.” 

The school boiler has not yet been fully repaired, and Shah’s room still has no heat during the coldest cold stretch in recent memory.

The mascot of John O’Connell High School, incidentally, is the “boilermaker.” So, yes: Ironic. 

“Too funny,” says Shah. “But sad.” 

SFUSD enrollment fair, 2014
In happier times: Hundreds of kids flood John O’Connel High in 2014 for an enrollment event. Photo by Andra Cernavskis.

O’Connell students and teachers are not the only ones returning from Spring Break today to ongoing winterish conditions. Material obtained from the San Francisco Unified School District via a public records request indicates that six schools have outstanding heating issues: O’Connell, Marshall High School, Flynn Elementary School, Washington High School, Lincoln High School and San Francisco Community School, a K-8 in the Excelsior. 



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