At the Augusta school board meeting on Sept. 14, the superintendent of schools stated that even though money was budgeted to install air conditioners at the elementary schools, the air conditioners were not installed because there was a miscount of the number of classrooms that needed air conditioning.

I thought perhaps that I misheard that response so I just listened to the meeting again online. Yes, that’s correct, the ASD administration is unable to count the correct number of classrooms in the elementary schools. The plan now is for us to hope for a cool spring so our children and the staff don’t end up in the hospital from heat exhaustion. School board member Tom Connors was the only one to question the superintendent on this issue. At what point is a majority of the school board going to stop being cheerleaders for the school department and do their job of demanding real answers from this administration?

This district had a $5 million surplus last year and there are still no air conditioners in the elementary schools? Perhaps the superintendents doesn’t notice the hot days since he has air conditioning in his office. Is it too much to expect the superintendent, who is making $115,000 a year, to ensure the accurate count of the number of classrooms in this district?

Apparently, to the majority of school members it is more important to protect the superintendent than to protect our children and the staff of the elementary schools.

Kathleen Mahoney

Augusta