Mattie Lively is facing AC issue amid back to school

STATESBORO, Ga. (WSAV)—School leaders at Mattie Lively Elementary are asking families to prepare their students for warm classrooms, as HVAC issues continue in new school year.

“With a big project like this it’s not something that we want to rush because ultimately you run into more problems,” said the Assistant Superintendent of Business Services, Brad Boykin.

Boykin says the repairs they make to their HVAC system are constant.

“As the system begins to age, we are running into more and more problems with each of the units,” said Boykin. “It could have multiple units go down at once or just one unit but we’re trying to fight an aging system.”

They’ve added portable units to classrooms that need it, added tint to windows and even started “pre-cooling” the school in the middle of the night to try and stave off afternoon heat.

“The challenge with this system is when one unit goes down that involves 8 classrooms that are down versus in a single use wall-hung units, that goes down it affects one classroom or just one whole space,” Boykin said.

There are eight classrooms that need the portable units and fans are set up throughout the school, according to Boykin.

“We’re working here as a school to make sure that the temperatures don’t affect the students as much as possible, that it doesn’t affect the learning environment,” said Assistant Principal of Mattie Lively Elementary, Bernard Bodison. “Just making sure that they’re well hydrated, making sure that they’re not wearing real heavy clothes would be best.”

Before the summer break, school leaders started the process to completely overhaul their current HVAC system. It’s in its final design stages now.

“We want that job to be where we’re not running into the same challenges that we’re currently running into and that the building has a more long-term solution.”

Boykin says they’re carefully planning when to build, since construction can be very loud and disruptive to a learning environment.