The HVAC and lighting effect

One of the main promises of the now-failed HISD bond referendum was funding to fix many issues with HVAC and lighting and other physical plant matters. In the aftermath of the bond’s failure, the Chron takes a look at the effect of not fixing these problems.

The optimal temperature range for learning appears to range between 68 and 74 degrees, with an ideal temperature of around 72 degrees, according to studies testing students’ performance at different temperatures.

Studies also point to air flow and quality impacting both students’ performance and attendance and a teacher’s ability to teach well, said Sapna Cheryan, a social psychologist at the University of Washington who helped conduct a 2014 study on classroom design and student achievement. In a separate 2014 study, 9% of public schools with permanent buildings and 16% of schools with temporary buildings had unsatisfactory or very unsatisfactory air quality.

HISD has been plagued with hundreds of work orders due to heating, ventilation and air conditioning since the start of the school year, which the district’s interim chief operating officer of business operations Alishia Jolivette attributes to aging structures.

“When we look at the overall construction and designs of our buildings, there’s really no consistency, there’s no uniformity. We rely on temporary buildings as well, and it’s really difficult to keep them cool or warm,” Jolivette said in September.

Duncan Klussman, a former Spring Branch ISD superintendent who helped pass what was then that district’s largest bond, said heating and cooling older schools can be difficult even with upgraded systems.

“When air conditioning really started being installed in schools in the 60s, all of those buildings had to be retrofitted for air conditioning,” Klussman said. “Bottom line is, retrofitted air conditioning just does not work as well.”

[…]

Excessive external noise within a classroom, including humming HVAC systems, airplane flight paths and road traffic, can also significantly impact student performance. The likelihood of having distracting external noise increases in schools with temporary buildings and can be a more serious concern for students with hearing loss or attention deficits, according to the 2014 study.

A classroom with more natural lighting may also correlate to higher test scores, although adding too much daylight could cause discomfort and temperature increases. A school with temporary buildings is more likely to have inadequate natural lighting than those with permanent buildings, according to the 2014 study. Klussman said having too much fluorescent lighting can also factor into students’ comfort and performance.

Schools with a higher percentage of economically disadvantaged students disproportionately struggle with structural deficiencies in lighting, temperature and noise, Cheryan said.

“These structural features that are lacking, are especially likely to be lacking in schools with high numbers of students of color or students from lower-income backgrounds,” Cheryan said. “So really, it’s the most vulnerable students who are bearing the brunt of this.”

Not sure I learned much from this, to be honest. We’ll never know how much the students might have benefitted from the promised work of the bond, but in the short term it might not have mattered much anyway, since that work would have taken time to complete. That there are problems, that work needs to be done to fix them, and that the conditions that many students operate in as a result are sufficiently inadequate to affect their experience and performance, these things are all certain. We also know why the bond to address them failed. The question remains whether HISD and Mike Miles can adequately adjust their approach to be able to pass another bond. It might help to more fully understand the problem and how the proposal can help mollify it. That’s on them.

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• HISD cornucopia
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