PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — With temperatures approaching 90 degrees this week, some Philly schools are making an early switch to air conditioning.
District Spokesperson Monique Braxton said the conversion to air conditioning on May 1, but the building engineers started the process this week.
"Many of our buildings operate on a two-pipe HVAC system, and they cannot provide heat and AC simultaneously,” she said. “So crews have begun to move building to building to complete the seasonal switch."
Braxton said half of the district’s buildings with central air and heat have already been transitioned. The remaining buildings will be transitioned by May 1.
Schools with window air conditioning units have been told they can turn them on. Braxton said 53 of the district's 218 schools currently have insufficient cooling systems.
