Some students seek medical help after school AC breaks - WSMV Channel 4
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Students in one local school district have already had to overcome a few hurdles because of the heat.
"Anybody that knows anything about the maintenance of a high school knows that you can't always control the issues that you're going to have," said Cookeville High School Principal Lane Ward.
Monday, Cookeville High School had a big issue. Temperatures outside were in the 90s and temperatures inside were in the 80s because when crews tried turning the air conditioning on early Monday morning before school, it wouldn't work.
Five students went to the nurse's office complaining of heat-related issues. Others, school officials said, just went home.
"It wasn't good," Ward said. "We went to the backup pump and it also had an issue."
Maintenance crews weren't able to get the air conditioning back up and running until two hours before school let out for the day.
"If it was bad enough that students were complaining and getting sick, they should have made provisions," said one parent.
"Teachers had fans, and we did what we could do to help. Our students weren't in danger, but we were all uncomfortable," Ward said.
The district turned off its air conditioning over the weekend because of a deal it has with the TVA. Occasionally, during non-school hours and during peak TVA hours, the school cuts off its heat or air conditioning.
The idea is to lighten the load on TVA, and, in exchange, the district gets a credit which they then turn around and put back into the school system.
"Many schools do this across the state. It's just an energy savings program," Ward said.
Despite that, school leaders said this week's incident was because of a mechanical failure.
Channel 4 also checked with Metro Schools officials. They said their schools raise their temperatures after hours and during weekends in order to save on energy and cut costs.
They added, as far as they know, each Metro school has fully-functioning air conditioners and is ready for school to start Wednesday.
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