{"id":16916,"date":"2020-09-01T03:37:11","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T07:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=16916"},"modified":"2020-09-01T03:37:11","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T07:37:11","slug":"brick-schools-chief-addresses-concerns-over-lack-of-a-c-in-classrooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2020\/09\/brick-schools-chief-addresses-concerns-over-lack-of-a-c-in-classrooms\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick Schools Chief Addresses Concerns Over Lack of A\/C In Classrooms"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Brick<\/a>

Brick Township Board of Education\/Schools (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

It is no secret that the vast majority of Brick Township schools are not air conditioned, leading some parents to question the safety of sending children to school where they will be required to wear a face mask in a hot classroom. But the district\u2019s superintendent said he will exercise diligence in determining if it is too hot for students and how to give them a proper break come September.<\/p>\n

The air conditioning issue caught speed over the past week, as parents gathered on social media channels to debate the situation. Indeed, one point of controversy centered on a state policy requiring more than half of the air emanating from air conditioning units to be fresh air rather than recirculated air. If most of the air was recirculated, the district would be barred by the state Department of Education from turning the units on in the first place.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the two schools which are fully air conditioned, Brick Memorial High School and Brick Township High School, have industrial HVAC units where fresh air intake can be adjusted, said Superintendent Thomas Farrell.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two high schools have full HVAC and those systems allow you to set a fresh air intake,\u201d he said. \u201cFrom the state\u2019s perspective, the more fresh air, the better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brick\u2019s systems will allow the high schools to use between 60 and 90 percent fresh air that is chilled and sent through vents.<\/p>\n

For the district\u2019s elementary and middle schools, most have a multi-purpose \u201csplit unit\u201d system that is not adjustable and, in some cases, will not be able to be turned on. But in these schools, only a few areas such as the library and resource rooms are air conditioned. The state also does not allow window-style air conditioning units in educational spaces.<\/p>\n

Farrell said classroom windows can open to allow fresh air inside, and officials will make common-sense decisions about how hot days are managed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re building in mask-breaks for our kids to be able to go outside and meet the recess requirements,\u201d said Farrell. \u201cThe parents have been great. I know we can\u2019t please everybody, and I know it\u2019s going to be a challenge, but I\u2019m grateful for the staff we have in this district. Everybody has really worked so hard to start off this school year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The district also \u201ccan call it\u201d and switch to an all-remote day if it is determined that the temperature will simply be too hot, Farrell said.<\/p>\n

But on a daily basis: \u201cWe have to provide fans for air flow and we\u2019re going out of our way to accommodate staff and students at this tough time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is no secret that the vast majority of Brick Township schools are not air conditioned, leading some parents to question the safety of sending children to school where they will be required to wear a face mask in a hot classroom. But the district\u2019s superintendent said he will exercise diligence in determining if it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[4123,4184,24,4183,3978],"class_list":["post-16916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brick-schools","tag-2020-21-school-year","tag-air-conditioning","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-classroom","tag-coronavirus"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/DSC_0004.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-4oQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}