I am writing this petition on behalf of the 596 members of the Ruth K. Broad Bay Harbor K-8 PTA, and the entire school community. We are a vibrant school community of over 1,200 students and 72 teachers and administrators. As a team, our school has consistently achieved an A letter grade due to our committed staff, engaged parents and bright young students.

Our school building has on-going issues with the Air Conditioning system (it's been more than a year now),  and we are urging the District to create a plan to improve it once and for all. The system is stretched past its intended limits and has become unreliable. In other places Air Conditioning may be a luxury, but for South Florida it is a basic necessity.  Children cannot learn, and teachers cannot teach in classrooms where the windows don’t open, and the indoor temperature can reach 95 degrees.

When the AC goes down parents feel compelled to pick up their children right away.  This forces parents to rush to figure out leave from work, childcare and other logistics. Children miss valuable instruction time.  Our school staff are asked to endure a very uncomfortable work environment. It is very disruptive.

This situation is not new and is not acceptable.  Our Administration, as well as parents and the schoool PTA, has been reaching out to the District about this many times without getting any responses. We need a solution now, before the temperatures rise again next Spring.