Broken Heater Leaves School Out in the Cold

Several classrooms have had no heat during the recent cold snap. Ironically, the root of the problem lies in air conditioning, which is currently being installed at the 38-year-old school.

The work on the central air-conditioning system began as soon as the 420-student Granada Hills school was dismissed for the summer, Principal Rosemary Enzer said. “They had to dismantle the heat to install it.”

Completion of the project, which was due in September, is now expected in a “few weeks,” Enzer said. The delay was due to equipment problems. “Some of the units that were supposed to arrive disassembled were already assembled when it got here,” Enzer said.

So far, 14 of the school’s 25 classrooms have been hooked up to the new system. Each of the other rooms has been supplied with a electric space heater for warmth.

“The electric system couldn’t accommodate more than that,” Enzer said. The Los Angeles Unified School District has authorized paying the school’s plant manager overtime to start his day at 5:30 a.m., an hour earlier than usual, to turn on the space heaters to warm the classrooms.

On Tuesday, the heater in one fifth-grade classroom took the edge off the chill, but the room was far from toasty.

“It’s a little cold,” said Yaffie Abullarade, 10, rubbing her hands while taking a break from a drawing assignment. Like many students in the class, she was wearing a sweater.

“It hasn’t been too bad,” said teacher Suzanne Campbell. “When you have 30 active fifth-graders in a room, they generate their own heat.”

Enzer characterized the situation as more annoying than dire.

“On a scale of what has happened over the last few years,” she said, “this falls well below the earthquake, which caused a lot of damage. It’s even below El Nino that left us without power for a couple days because of the rains.”