Teachers: Students in cold Bridgeport school forced to wear coats

They shared photos of thermometers that showed working conditions below room temperature and deep concern for their students’ learning and well-being.

“To have them come in and try to learn in coats and hats, it’s not productive,” said one of the teachers. “It’s not a good day.”

Columbus School is not unique in its HVAC problems. Nearly a third of Connecticut school districts report not having the funds to upgrade the air quality, according to Connecticut Public’s Accountability Project. One in five schools does not have a program to evaluate indoor air.

Local educators have long pointed to outdated HVAC systems in older schools, particularly hot temperatures during the summer months.

One Columbus teacher added that children in the high-poverty school are already dealing with a stressful school year.

“Our students are already coming to school without their basic needs met, without having been fed, having issues at home. We’re already trying to bring them up to a level playing field,” said the teacher.

“And we’re expecting them to pay attention (in cold classrooms). It’s next to impossible,” she said.

Teachers alerted their union, including Jeff Morrissey, who oversees facilities grievances for the Bridgeport Education Association. Morrissey said the system went down over the weekend, so by Monday morning, temperatures had significantly decreased.

“It took a while for the building to heat back up again,” Morrissey said.

The union leader said they have good communication with the facilities department when problems arise. “Sometimes we hear about it, and they’re there already,” he said. “But there are other times we reach out with a problem in a particular building, especially when something is as important as heat in the cold-air months.”

Superintendent Michael Testani said he was aware of a similar problem last year and is taking steps to assure temperatures are steady.

“We have facilities personnel coming in over the next couple weeks as the weather is colder early to address any issues that could potentially arise,” Testani said.

The school district has plans to address the building’s air conditioners with federal funds, but not its boiler at this time.

“If this becomes an issue, we will repair it,” Testani said.

“Every district has older buildings, newer buildings,” he said. “These are not isolated concerns here in Bridgeport. They do occur in suburban towns as well.”

One teacher called the building notorious for being cold, while a third explained the problem repeats itself every week.

Long-term solutions have been hard to come by. Custodians will call in the problem, the three Columbus teachers said, and workers have come to look at the units.

“Sometimes I teach with my coat on all day,” said one of the educators, who keeps a space heater under her desk and a shawl in the classroom for when she needs an extra layer.

Those students, the Columbus teachers said, struggle to concentrate, wear gloves that make it hard to hold a pencil or use a Chromebook, or wear hoods against school district policy. That creates an extra responsibility for the teachers who need to enforce the rules.

“I’m lucky I’m on the side of the building that gets the sun during the day,” a teacher said. “That sounds ridiculous that I would even need to do that, and on a cloudy day, we’re out of luck.””