All, thank you very much for signing and supporting the petition. Its wonderful to see that so many of us are on the same page in prioritizing air conditioning our schools. I wanted to provide you an update.  Because we are at over 200 signatures and counting, I was asked to meet with Superintendent Dr. Kevin McCloud and Chris Pulver, head of facilities for the district, last week. 

In that meeting, I was told there is a short-term, medium-term, and long-term plan to address cooling all school buildings. It was acknowledged that the biggest problem is at VRES, as it is the oldest building in the district. 

The short-term plan includes adding cooling stations (library and hallways) at VRES starting this September as well as allowing/encouraging kids to bring in their own personal cooling devices. 

The medium-term plan is to take money out of the district's reserve fund in early 2026 to install air conditioners in the hottest classrooms across schools by the fall of 2026. 

The long-term plan is to propose a bond issuance in late 2026 which would support universal air  conditioning installation in all classrooms across all the district schools, along with all the electrical support that would entail. 

I asked Dr. McCloud to share these plans with the community as clearly there are a lot of concerned people in our district.  He said he would be doing so shortly, so we will look forward to more information coming from him.  

Thank you. -Joe