HEAT WAVE COSTS LAUSD MORE THAN $400K IN A.C. REPAIRS + smf’s 2¢

By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer, LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/NPCLWK

Los Angeles Unified maintenance crews racked up more than $400,000 in overtime repairing overloaded air-conditioning units during the heat wave that swamped the region during the opening days of school, LAUSD officials said. (Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News)

Los Angeles Unified maintenance crews racked up more than $400,000 in overtime repairing overloaded air-conditioning units during the heat wave that swamped the region during the opening days of school, LAUSD officials said. (Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News)

 

Updated:   9/6/2012 04:32:43 PM PDT  ::  Los Angeles Unified maintenance crews racked up more than $400,000 in overtime repairing overloaded air-conditioning units during the heat wave that swamped the region during the opening days of school, officials said.

Maintenance and Operations chief Roger Finstad said crews cleaned and checked the equipment at the district's 30,000 classrooms before school started on Aug. 14, and thought everything was all set to go.

But sweltering temperatures overwhelmed air-conditioning units, prompting 360 service calls the second day alone. After two days of hustling from school to school - fixing units that weren't cranking out enough cooled air or had quit altogether - facilities officials declared an emergency and ordered repair crews to work overtime until the crisis abated.

Backed by 30 salaried supervisors, about six dozen pipefitters worked 6,865 hours of overtime from Aug. 17-19, Finstad said. With workers making an average of $60 an hour in overtime pay, that equates to about $412,000.

"We felt we really had a serious matter on our hands, and we needed to pull out all stops," Finstad said. "Folks responded in a great way. Everyone was pitching in to get a handle on what was going on."

Finstad said it's too early to determine how the air-conditioning crisis will impact the division's total overtime, which can vary widely from year to year. In 2010-11, for instance, M&O recorded 120,438 hours of OT, compared with 52,377 last year.

Finstad estimated that M&O has received 4,000 calls for air-conditioning repairs during the first three weeks of school, most of them coming from campuses in the San Fernando Valley. Crews have been able to fix about 3,100 of the problems, while the rest involve more serious repairs to aging equipment.

That's the case at Nobel Middle School in Northridge, where the 1960s-era air-conditioning system needs to be replaced. While waiting for the project to be bid and completed, crews installed a "chiller" at the school in an effort to keep students and staff as comfortable as possible.

"We've had temperatures of 102 (outside) and when you have 40 kids in a classroom, it really magnifies the heat," said Principal Derek Horowitz. "They came in and installed a chiller, and it's much better. And they're coming up with a game plan for getting a new system in place."

At other schools, teachers say that air conditioners are in working order, but just can't sufficiently cool the afternoon heat radiating through classroom walls and bungalows.

Finstad said service calls have tapered off to about 130 a day, although they'll likely spike again when temperatures heat up.

Finstad credited the skill of his technicians for being able to keep the equipment running. He said air-conditioning units typically wear out after 15 years and that many are now at least 20 years old.

The division is taking inventory of all of its equipment, with an eye toward determining how to best spend the limited amount of money available for equipment replacement. That process is expected to take about two years.

 

smf:  What is unsaid in the above story is: 1. Facilities staff guaranteed the public and the Board of Education that the Early Start Calendar would not be impacted by heat and air conditioning issues and that the roll-out would be cost neutral. As this story was going to press the superintendent was congratulating staff and administrators on how well and trouble-free the school year opened. Large numbers of LAUSD M&O employees were laid off at the beginning of summer – many M&O employees were working overtime to replace their needed but laid-off brothers. LAUSD did not necessarily bring in the right folks to work all that OT.  I spoke to a senior HVAC worker forced to do sheet metal fabrication on Labor Day weekend because that craft was not brought in to do the work. “Sure I can do it”, he said, “…but they were paying me twice as much as a sheet metal fabricator to take twice as long to do a poor job.  And I would expect the sheet metal guys to file a grievance because I was doing their job!” HVAC workers tell me that there always are a large number of trouble calls when schools first open, even without the heat wave, the Early Start Calendar or mass lay-0ffs in M&O. “Maintenance and Operations chief Roger Finstad said crews cleaned and checked the equipment at the district's 30,000 classrooms before school started on Aug. 14….” seems Pollyannaish or disingenuous or both. How can one possibly check and test the AC in 30,000 classrooms without the load of students in the classrooms or before the heat wave?  There probably is a computer simulation program  one could run  (“There’s an App for that!” )  but you know that  wasn’t done.  The infamous last words in this explanation are at the end:  “…and thought everything was all set to go.”  It’s called hubris: the human component of systems failure. Remember the payroll fiasco? “We thought everything was all set to go.” Belmont Learning Complex? “We thought everything was all set to go.” Burbank USD rolled out the Early Start Calendar a few years ago. The same thing happened there – just on a smaller (Burbank) scale..