AISD high school experiencing 'heating issues' due to extreme weather
AUSTIN (KXAN) — An Austin Independent School District high school is experiencing a “heating issue” due to “extreme weather conditions,” the district confirmed in a statement to KXAN Friday.
KXAN received emails from people in the community who said temperatures inside some of the classrooms at Bowie High School were uncomfortably cold, as an arctic blast brought below-freezing temperatures to the city this week. One viewer said there were reports of classrooms that had temperatures in the 40s.
KXAN reached out to AISD to get more details on the issue, which the district confirmed in an email Friday.
“Austin ISD’s Operations Team is aware and addressing the heating issue. Due to the extreme weather conditions the system is being pushed to its full capacity. We recognize that some older buildings with less insulation may not maintain consistent temperatures in these extreme conditions,” a spokesperson with AISD said, adding that it had details on its website about current bond projects.
In April 2024, KXAN investigators obtained records from AISD, which showed more than 4,000 work orders were filed from the start of the school year to mid-February related to HVAC issues. Bowie topped that list.
This all comes after voters passed a $2.44 billion bond in November 2022 to help the district to attain those long-term fixes for many schools in the district. The money from that bond does include brand-new HVAC systems, as well as other targeted projects, like HVAC upgrades.
As part of the district’s 2022 bond program, one of the proposed projects includes heating and air conditioning improvements.
Current AISD Superintendent Matias Segura was the district’s Chief of Operations when he told KXAN in 2022, “We are constantly putting ‘Band-Aids’ on our facilities. That’s not fixing it the way that we truly want to fix it. That’s really just repairing it, so that it can continue on.”
