Malibu school AC failing as heat wave approaches Play

And now we learn of major air conditioning problems at Malibu’s new middle school and high school buildings. 

They are overheating.

Teachers union representative Julie Jones went before the school board last night.

“As you know, MMS has two newish buildings: building E opened in the fall of 2019 and the AB building a couple years later. 

“They are both too new to be having HVAC issues. 

“Both buildings have had heating and cooling issues pretty much since they opened.

“At the moment," she said, "there are a couple of massive chilling units in the upper portion of the Morning View parking lot to provide AC to areas where it is not working.” 

The chillers inside the two new buildings do not actually cool the air … 

They cool the concrete flooring … which radiates cool air to the people.

The chillers are not removing enough heat from the concrete. 

Rooms are hot … teachers are unable to keep their doors propped open … due to the loud construction project right in the middle of the campuses. 

Teachers union representative Julie Jones told the board … the problem has been evident since the two buildings opened. 

“The brand new Malibu high school building has not had working heating or cooling since it opened a year and a half ago. 

"Just as with the middle school buildings, we need a remedy for the high school buildings. 

“Hopefully there is a long-term plan to remedy the situation and hopefully a plan to hold those responsible for the construction accountable. 

“Millions of dollars should yield working HVAC systems.”

This puts school Superintendent Antonio Shelton quite literally in the hot seatsays the coming heat wave has the districts attention.

"Yes the heat is coming, starting this weekend.

"90 degrees starts tomorrow and we are working on it. There is a chiller, that was mentioned, to make sure that the Malibu schools are working effectively.

"They want a full report. You're right people need to be held accountable

"If we have these new spaces and they are not working the way that they should be working, that they should be working.” 

The district hopes that its temporary chiller trucks in the parking lot can handle the load during the coming heat wave.

The school superintendent says SMMUSD is getting ready … not only for the heat wave this month … but the rain storms that are predicted in the months to follow. 

“As we prepare for the storms’ impact of El Niño ,SMMUSD is continuing to stress emergency preparedness and power resiliency at our Malibu schools. 

“The drains that you see on our campus, we are cleaning those we are go, we are cutting the trees back to ensure that the trees don't land on top of the schools.”

Backup generators and quick connect wiring have already been installed at all four Malibu public school campuses. 

Last night … the school board approved the final phase of a project to install solar panels and large batteries at Malibu High and Malibu Middle schools. 

It’s a microgrid … actually .. three of them.

And we’ll have details on that in a later broadcast.