A teacher at Lavaland Elementary photographed her classroom thermometer on August 7, the first day of school: nearly 93 degrees. Contractors were still on-site, working on the building's evaporative coolers. The National Weather Service had posted a heat advisory for that afternoon, forecast high near 102°F.
At Adobe Acres Elementary, a parent's photo showed above 90. She'd solved it the year before by buying a portable A/C unit for the classroom herself. Nobody from APS has said publicly who authorized the unit, who covers the electricity, or what classrooms do when no parent can write that check.
Neither school is among the 20 in APS's $40 million bond-funded cooling conversion. Converting all 153 buildings would cost four times that.
State standard: Classrooms must maintain 68–75°F at full occupancy, measured at a work surface in the room's center. Thermometer photos document conditions but don't constitute the official measurement.
Evaporative coolers: About 72% of APS classrooms still rely on them. Best case, they drop outside temps by 20 degrees, which means 80°F on a 100-degree day before you add thirty kids.
Bond status: 8 of the 20 funded schools are under construction. The other 12 remain in design, some needing electrical upgrades and reroofing before conversion can start.
Portable A/C units: Teachers were buying their own as early as August 2024.
By 2050: Albuquerque is projected to see roughly 45 days above 97°F per year, up from about 7 in 1990.