Ottawa Elementary to add air conditioning units at Lincoln School

Ottawa Elementary School District 141 started a new project to install window air-conditioning units at Lincoln Elementary School this summer to provide comfort to the learning environment for students while improving working conditions for staff.

With the school being built more than 130 years ago, Lincoln Elementary students and staff have experienced uncomfortable conditions without air conditioning, prompting heat days, where classes were disrupted because of high temperatures. A summer ago, Lincoln became the focus of conversation at public meetings as classroom temperatures were recorded at between 75 and 85 degrees at the school.

The project, which will put units in every classroom and office in the building, marks a milestone for the district with the expectation that everything should be installed before school starts in August.

“We’re hoping to have everything completed by the second week of August as long as everything goes well, and so far it has,” OES Director of Maintenance Mark Tabor said.

Tabor said during early and late months of the school year, Lincoln has had multiple heat days, where classes would be cut short or dropped for the day because of the rising temperature. So the decision was made not only to make students and staff more comfortable, but also to eliminate the need for missing classroom time.

“Lincoln School has never had AC,” Tabor said. “So we’ve had heat days when it’s been just too hot for students and staff to sit in all day, so the superintendent had to call it off.”

Superintendent Michelle Lee said Lincoln is the only school in the district that doesn’t have air conditioning.

Lee said that two years ago the district decided to put geothermal air conditioning units at McKinley and Jefferson. Because of budgetary constraints at the time and the age of the building, the district couldn’t afford the project until now.

The units at Lincoln will be window air conditioning instead of geothermal, with a total cost of $1,472,700. It’s important to note, however, that this solution is not considered long-term.

With the installation of air conditioning coming, students and staff at Lincoln can look forward to cooler classrooms and an uninterrupted class schedule for the start of the upcoming school year, officials said.