MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Milwaukee Public School teachers are heading back into the classroom Tuesday and kids will follow next week.
However, nearly 75 percent of the district's classrooms still don't have air conditioning. With temperatures high this week, TMJ4 wanted to find out if MPS has made improvements when it comes to cooling schools.
The short answer is, it didn't.
"I think it sucks big time without air in the school," Porscha Newton said.
Newton has kids in MPS. Her daughter is in the process of transferring to Rufus King High School, one of the many schools without air conditioning.
"It's extremely hot outside today, so now I'm really worried," former student Maribel Franco said.
Watch: Parents and former students still concerned over lack of AC at MPS schools
"I would have to go to school, like in beaters. There really wasn't no air conditioning in the school," another former student, Riley Viera, said.
Viero and Franco both went to Pulaski High School on the south side. It too is one of the many without air conditioning.
"Shocked, but not shocked at the same time," Franco added.
"I have asthma myself, so I wouldn't be able to sit somewhere where it's totally hot," Newton said.
Since 2020, more than $770M has been funneled into MPS from the federal government. It's money one board director said hasn't been and won't be used for air conditioning improvements.
"There was blocks of money that had to be used for mostly educational recuperation, so that was a big factor. For me personally, I thought 'no I wanna hire more intervention people, mental health people.' I wanna expand some of our programs," Board Director Henry Leonard explained.
Leonard said because a majority of MPS buildings are decades old, some even a century old, retrofitting them with new air conditioning would cost tens of millions of dollars.
"What about the over $250M of a referendum," Reporter Jenna Rae asked Leonard.
"That referendum money really is a stopgap to major cuts, so we still have cuts and part of that is our fault," Leonard responded.
Former students and parents said they feel differently.
"It's a lot of money, especially, you know, for MPS, and that could be put towards a lot of things actually like new equipment, new stuff, and like air conditioning," Viera said.
"If you can install air conditioning in homes that's old, find a way to put it in the school. There's money out there, I'm pretty sure there is. I don't know what to do, but find a way," Newton added.
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