Lack of school bus air conditioning concerns parents
With the summer heat in the Coachella Valley, air condition is key when dealing with triple digit temperatures.
Desert Sands Unified School families have reached out to us, to voice their concern that some district buses have no AC.
Kirsten said the school year is off to a good start for her daughter attending elementary school in Palm Desert.
However, she said she was concerned after her daughter got dropped off from school on a bus earlier this week.
“I just couldn’t believe, first of all, she was beat red,” Kirsten said. “Her shirt was soaked in sweat. The back of her shorts were soaked in sweat, and she was just pink. I asked her if the bus was cool, and she said no. The only thing they had were the windows open.”
She and other parents are concerned about students in Desert Sands Unified School District (DSUSD) riding in buses without air conditioning in triple-digit heat.
District leaders said they’re addressing the issue, including having precautions in place for buses without A/C.
“We try to park the buses in shady areas, if possible,” DSUSD Public Information Officer Mary Perry said. “We always have the windows down during the transportation of the students, so there is some airflow.”
Out of 95 total buses, Perry said all district special needs buses are equipped with A/C.
Meanwhile, three large buses are equipped, and she said four more large ones with A/C are set to arrive at the district in September.
“We certainly understand the concern for having your children in heat during this really hot time of the year,” Perry said. “It happens, of course, around the end of August and the beginning of September. It also happens at the end of the school year, when we’re faced with excessive heat. So, we are trying to move forward with replacing the buses.”
Perry said the district also plans on adding four more large buses with air conditioning in 2018.
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