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Governor Larry Hogan publicly reprimanded Baltimore Schools Executive Director Sonja Santelises on Wednesday for failing to meet air conditioning commitments in seven schools where students were fired earlier this week.
The governor has opened a regular meeting of the Public Works Council with a setback against what he called the "totally unacceptable" level of progress of the Baltimore city and county to cool their public schools. In the midst of this week's "red code" heat wave, 10 non-air-conditioned country schools remained closed, while more than 60 schools in the city closed three hours earlier on Tuesday and Wednesday – and will be back on Thursday.
The issue of stifling schools has become a burning political issue, as Hogan and Democratic challenger Ben Jealous tried to blame the closures with two months before election day.
Hogan focused his criticism on the failure of the city's school system to complete the installation of air conditioning in seven of the more than five dozen schools that closed earlier this week. Strong transcripts of past meetings of the Public Works Council, he stressed the assurances of Santelises that the $ 6 million project to refresh the seven schools would be completed in time for the 2017-2018 school year.
"The Superintendent came before us and made a commitment to the BPW to address these issues," Hogan said.
But Mr Santelises said the district had noted in a May memo to state officials that the timing of some schools required adjustment. As with most construction projects, Santelises added, unexpected road blocks appear, especially when it comes to the oldest school buildings in the state. One of these seven schools received a historical designation that resulted in new complications. Others have faced candidacy protests.
"What I find ironic is that if we had bypassed the bid protest, if we had bypassed the historical qualifications, if we had bypassed these regulations, I would also be criticized for mismanagement," Santelises said. "It's not bad management. These are people who do not read their updates.
These seven schools tell only part of the story, she said. Under the district state approved plan, air conditioning has been installed in 12 schools in 2016 and 2017 and another 12 facilities will receive cooling systems this year. The five-year district-wide air conditioning implementation plan is on track, Santelises said.
"It's not like we're sitting around and nothing has happened," she said. "There are schools that do not have to shut down because they have AC power."
Years of underinvestment in Baltimore's aging educational infrastructure are creating complex construction issues that can not be "dispelled," Santelises said. "We are going to have to face the fact that there is an aggravated need in the Baltimore City buildings."
Yet the Republican governor told the board of directors in October 2017 that Keith Scroggins, director of operations at the city school, had recently retired and that the work in the seven schools had been completed.
"It's hard to keep up with stories," said Amelia Chasse, Hogan's spokesperson. "But the governor believed the evidence of school officials before the Public Works Bureau that these projects would be completed long ago."
Hogan also highlighted the information provided by the state commission that oversees the construction of schools in January, indicating that the projects had not been completed and that their completion was planned for spring or summer.
"This is not a false story," Hogan said. "They are made. They are written in their own words.
A spokesman for the city's school system said on Wednesday night that Scroggins, in his testimony of 2017, was referring to another set of schools being repaired according to a different schedule.
The schools in question are the Lakewood Learning Center, Baltimore Polytechnic, West Frederick Douglass, Mergenthaler School, Edmondson-Westside High Schools and the North Block, which houses Reginald. F. Lewis High. The approximately $ 6 million approved for these seven schools was reserved for vertical air conditioning units packaged in individual classrooms.
Last month, the city's school board approved an offer of $ 1.7 million to provide air conditioning in Edmondson.
According to the district's most recent program, the North Building, Mervo and Lakewood, are expected to have units installed later in the calendar year. Their projects are in the construction phase.
Poly should have air conditioning next year, just like Western and Edmondson. The Douglass process is being delayed by the Commission for Historic and Architectural Preservation, but is expected to be completed this year.
Democratic controller Peter Franchot, the third board member and one of Hogan's frequent allies, criticized Edmondson's contract and its approval by a new state commission that oversees school construction. He said he was asking to spend $ 55,000 per classroom to cool the high school where council had already approved a plan providing Edmondson air conditioning at a cost of $ 19,000 per classroom.
"I call it the looting of taxpayers," he said.
City school spokeswoman Anne Fullerton said the district did not have to pay for the units themselves, but the cost of upgrades to the electrical systems and windows. Many schools were not equipped to handle such devices.
"We can not buy 50 room air conditioners and plug them all in," she said. "These systems consume a lot of energy, and upgrades are needed."
In addition, the types of units that the district has purchased can both cool down summer classrooms and heat them in the winter – a more serious need in Baltimore schools.
Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp, a Democrat who is also a board member of three, insisted on progress.
"One of the most real problems is that the city does not have the resources that Montgomery County or Baltimore County have to make available to them," she said. Kopp said that when these counties could have more than $ 100 million to contribute to the budgets covering such projects, the city is limited to about $ 20 million.
"It adds," she said. "It makes a difference."
Jealous continues to criticize Hogan's role in dealing with the problem.
"Once again, we see Larry Hogan pointing fingers rather than providing solutions," Jealous said in a statement. "When does the governor decide to come to town, bring people together and find a way forward so that all our children can finally start the school year?
Jesse Schneiderman, a teacher from Douglass, said the air conditioner in his classroom had been broken for years, making the first two days of school "incredibly hot".
He said his class continued. Under sweat conditions, they reviewed the program and passed through typical icebreakers of the first day.
"Would they be more concentrated if it was temperate? Of course, he says. "But we make it work."
Chanel Parker's first school days in Douglass were hard to handle, said the former, with only one class equipped with a functional air conditioner.
Parker spent short school days "thinking about going home and coming out of this heat".
Baltimore County school officials announced Wednesday that its eight schools and two unconditioned centers will be closed again Thursday due to the heat. Since 2011, Baltimore County has reduced the number of schools without air conditioning from 90 to 10.
The city will also continue to close schools three hours earlier for a third consecutive day, a plan to provide students with free breakfast and lunch.
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