School board turns down parents’ offer to buy air conditioning units for local elementary schools

MOUNT PLEASANT, Pa. — The parent teacher organization here in Mount Pleasant School District raised enough money to get air conditioning units put into three elementary schools they don’t have any air conditioning at all.

But the school board is passing on the offer, upsetting a lot of parents whose kids have to sit in these classrooms.

“The Heat in the building has always been a concern, they’ve had to shorten the days, children get sent home regularly,” said PTO President Crystal Helman.

Crystal Helman isn’t just the PTO President for Mount Pleasant Elementary, she’s also a mother of a student herself.

If you want to receive Westmoreland County news alerts, please download our WPXI News App. You can also follow WPXI on Facebook and Twitter.

That’s why she, along with the other PTO moms, pledged to buy $40,000 worth of air conditioning units, including, installation to add to Ramsay, Norvelt and Donegal elementary schools this year.

“It’s coming up to approximately $800 per unit for purchasing and installation and there are 61 rooms all together that need to be done. The first phase would be the primarily homerooms,” Helman said.

She said she knows firsthand just how sweltering these buildings can get, and now this year, students have to wear face masks on top of it.

“To read the comments of other parents in the district where their children had passed out in class and had to be sent home from the day it was heartbreaking to see that,” Helman said.

But at this week’s school board meeting, the board passed on the offer — at least for right now.

The school board sent Channel 11 a statement saying:

“The Mt. Pleasant Area School District Board of Directors and Administration is very appreciative and thankful for the offer to purchase 54 individual air conditioning units for the elementary schools. The Property Committee is committed to fully researching the possibility of a viable long-term solution desired by all parties.”

“The District has an obligation to ensure the effectiveness, feasibility, safety, maintenance, insurances and protections, code provisions and other concerns that go along with a major project are all in proper order. The timeliness limits the ability to address all of the aforementioned items appropriately prior to the start of the 2020/2021 school year. The entire district staff continues to focus their efforts on the necessary preparations to return to school in a safe and effective manner during the Covid-19 pandemic.”

But for parents like Helman, she said it should be an easy solution, putting the kids health first.

“We feel that we could work with them and work around what they need to be accomplishing. And get what we feel what we need to be done to get these units in the classroom,” Helman said.

The school board apparently said it’ll look at some calling solutions in the weeks and months to come, and will look to see if a project is feasible come 2021.

CMU freshman move-in, students go online-only for first week

Cox Media Group