Post updated at 5:57 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 3:
The Lawrence school district is telling students and staff to bundle up as several school buildings or classrooms are having heat problems, up against outdoor temperatures as low as the teens and only as high as the 30s.
District spokesperson Julie Boyle said Tuesday morning that the Facilities and Operations team was responding to reports of heating system problems at Schwegler Elementary School and Southwest Middle School.
“We encourage our staff to report room temperature concerns to their supervisor, so F&O staff can address them,” she said via email. “We also recommend that staff and students dress in layers during cold weather months so they may adjust their clothing to changing temperatures.”
Lindsay Pope’s two children attend New York Elementary School for regular, non-Montessori classes. Their teachers notified Pope and other parents Monday evening that the heat was not working that day, resulting in a cold day. The teachers recommended students come with extra layers of clothes Tuesday.
“I’m not worried about my children,” Pope said. “My children get to come home to a warm home, fridge filled with food and supportive, caring parents who ask them about their day and listen to everything that they want to tell me there. I’m worried about the families that don’t have that.”
Pope said one of her children’s teachers told her it was 45° in four classrooms and one of the resource rooms when she came in for work Tuesday morning. It was around 16° outside just before 8 a.m. The heat was fixed at around 10:15 or 10:30 a.m., Pope said the teacher said.
Boyle confirmed that staff had fixed the problem at New York on Tuesday.
“This is our second day back at school after a week of building closures during fall break and the recent cold snap,” Boyle said. “It is a normal seasonal occurrence for our Facilities and Operations Team to respond to reports from building administrators about temperature irregularities in specific classrooms or certain sections of buildings. In some cases, a thermostat adjustment fixes the issue. In others, an HVAC system repair may be needed.”
But a Liberty Memorial Central Middle School staff member who asked not to be named said the heat wasn’t fully working at LMCMS “well before fall break.” Staff put in a work order weeks ago. Heat was still out in some areas Tuesday afternoon, mostly in offices and some classrooms, they said.
“There are some offices and some classes that are cold,” the staff member said via email. “We didn’t have this issue last year.”
We asked Boyle to confirm LMCMS’s work order and potential reports of heat issues at Hillcrest Elementary School as well as share additional updates the district might have late Tuesday afternoon.
She said that “if issues have been reported, our F&O staff are addressing them.”
Pope said she thinks the heat issue is reflective of a larger one, especially stemming from the 2023 school closures.
Teachers and building staff are doing their best to meet day-to-day student needs but lack adequate support from the district administration, she said. Pope also said she feels the communications about the heat issues at New York should have come from higher-ups.
“To think that these little kids are walking to school, first of all, in 16-degree weather and being welcomed into their school with no heat, it’s heartbreaking to me,” Pope said. “They might be going home to chaotic homes or homes that might not feel super cozy and secure, and they’re looking to schools to be their safety and to be their, you know, big, warm hug, and they’re not getting that. And we’re failing them.”
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Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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Severe weather resources
National Weather Service local office (Topeka):
• Find the latest weather forecast info and severe weather advisories for the Lawrence area at this link.
• In the event of rapidly changing severe weather, such as tornadoes, the NWS posts frequent updates on Twitter, @NWSTopeka. You do not need a Twitter account to see tweets from NWS.
• NWS is also on Facebook, facebook.com/NWSTopeka.
• Call 785-234-2592 to hear the forecast.
Douglas County Emergency Management:
• Follow @DgCoEM on Twitter or Douglas County, KS- Emergency Management on Facebook, facebook.com/dgcoem.
• Sign up to receive emergency alerts at dgcoks.org/emalerts.
• Find lots of tips on severe weather and other emergency preparedness on DgCoEM’s website at douglascountyks.org/emergency-management.
• Report storm damage (for non-emergencies only, and after storm danger has passed) by calling the nonemergency dispatch line at 785-843-0250 or 785-832-7509.
Evergy outages:
• Check the status of power outages on the Evergy outage map, outagemap.evergy.com.
• Report a power outage at evergy.com/report-outage, or call 800-544-4857.
• For down powerlines, call 911.
City of Lawrence snow info:
• The city has snow information and a map at lawrenceks.org/snow that shows information about road conditions and snow plow locations. The city typically begins snow and ice control for residential roadways when 2 or more inches of snowfall or icing occurs.
Air quality:
• Check the current air quality index in Lawrence and elsewhere through AirNow, airnow.gov.
