Study: Md. Public Schools Will Need to Spend $818 Million to Cool Classrooms by 2025

As climate change leads to hotter days across the country, the cost of cooling public school buildings grows higher. New research estimates that more than 280 Maryland public schools that did not need air conditioning in 1970 could have to spend $818 million to install new heating and cooling systems by 2025 to keep classrooms at a safe temperature.

These schools may also have to spend an additional $32.8 million every year to operate and maintain the HVAC systems, affecting more than 900,000 students across the state, according to the report from the Center for Climate Integrity, an environmental advocacy group. And those costs are expected to increase as the climate continues to heat up.

Montgomery County Public Schools, the largest school district in the state, faces the highest increased costs... 

https://www.marylandmatters.org/2021/05/15/study-md-public-schools-will-need-to-spend-818-million-to-cool-classrooms-by-2025/

Students are standing with a banner at the east entrance of the Board of Education office in Rockville. Their rally to demand climate action from MCPS will start soon.

Students are standing with a banner at the east entrance of the Board of Education office in Rockville. Their rally to demand climate action from MCPS will start soon. pic.twitter.com/S2Csx9PCHM

— Maryam Shahzad (@maryamUMD) September 27, 2019

MCPS Ranks High Schools Based on New Data on School Climate

MCPS released School Climate Data at this link.

A MCPS teacher took the data and created a list of high schools using the data and sent it to The Washington Post.

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...Here is his list of high schools ranked by the percentage of staffers who this year agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “Staff morale is positive in this school.”

Percentage on survey and percentage of low income/FARMS students:

1. Paint Branch, 77.9 percent, 34 percent

2. Walter Johnson, 73.4 percent, 7 percent

3. Whitman, 69.6 percent, 5 percent

4. Northwest, 68 percent, 25 percent

5. Poolesville, 64.6 percent, 6 percent

6. Einstein, 61 percent, 42 percent

7. Wootton, 59 percent, 5 percent

8. Blair, 55.4 percent, 36 percent

9. Watkins Mill, 54.6 percent, 53 percent

10. Wheaton, 51.1 percent, 49 percent

11. Damascus, 49.4 percent, 15 percent

12. Rockville, 48.6 percent, 36 percent

13. Richard Montgomery, 45.9 percent, 20 percent

14. Quince Orchard, 41.9 percent, 23 percent

15. Blake, 41.9 percent, 35 percent

16. Churchill, 39.7 percent, 5 percent

17. Northwood, 35.9 percent, 50 percent

18. Seneca Valley, 33.8 percent, 37 percent

19. Clarksburg, 32 percent, 27 percent

20. Kennedy, 30.4 percent, 51 percent

21. Sherwood, 25.4 percent, 17 percent

22. Bethesda-Chevy Chase, 23.9 percent, 11 percent

23. Magruder, 21.7 percent, 33 percent

24. Gaithersburg, 21.4 percent, 42 percent

25. Springbrook, 17.1 percent, 47 percent

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/how-you-rate-your-school-becomes-important-under-new-law/2017/11/19/8fa0187a-cb24-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html?utm_term=.008e4f6e0b49