Cooling classrooms proves costly, even when school is out

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — An Orange County public school is using tax dollars to pay to run the air conditioning for dozens of portable classrooms even though school is out.

The hum of 50 air conditioning units is about all you hear outside Whispering Oak Elementary School in Winter Garden.

The units are cooling down 50 portable buildings. But most of the portables are empty.

"I think that we are not spending our tax money as well as we should," said Orange County resident Tom Wirbel.

The portables have been sitting unused for about a month. Forty of them are waiting to be disconnected and removed.

"Why are you running the air conditioning in them?" WFTV reporter Bianca Castro asked Jim Surguine, the director of operations and maintenance for Orange County Public Schools.

"We have two modes of operation, we have occupied mode and unoccupied mode," said Surguine.

Unoccupied mode calls for temperatures inside empty buildings, including the portables, to stay between 83 and 85 degrees in order to keep mold out.

During the hot summer months, that takes a lot more energy and money.

Whispering Oak's electric bill for June was higher than each of the two previous months, when school was actually in session.

The portables aren't scheduled to be removed for a few more weeks.

"Why not just empty those portables out as soon as they're not in use and then get rid of them?" Castro asked.

"It's a very complex process of disconnecting and taking out all the systems. So I would offer that as a reasonable explanation. Is it ideal? Probably not," said Sanguine.

But some critics say anything less than ideal, at a time when public education is strapped for cash, shouldn't be an option.

"I think anything has to be managed properly. Costs need to be put in line," said Wirbel.

The school district said they hope to disconnect all the utility lines to the portables within a few weeks.

The company that leased out the portables to the district will then remove them from the property.

WFTV