It was a scorching hot day in mid-July when Sue Kelly called her friend, Juliana Perisin, to discuss dinner plans.
Perisin, the principal of Hendricks Academy elementary school in Fuller Park, could hardly think about eating.
Summer school was in session, and 120 students were squirming in their seats.
The South Side school had no air conditioning, Perisin told Kelly, and the heat in the classrooms was stifling.
Amid one of the worst heat waves in years, temperatures in the school’s computer lab soared above 100 degrees, crippling the computers.
Kelly was stunned. A former teacher and Chicago police officer, she knew how difficult it can be to get a child’s attention when they’re hot and bothered.
She decided she had to do something.
Weeks earlier, the Tribune had run a story about an animal shelter that lost its air conditioning, and Kelly was touched by readers’ willingness to pitch in and help out.
She penned a letter to the paper about Hendricks Academy.
“This is not a charter school or a private school, just a good neighborhood school in a low-income area,” she wrote. “Why can’t the children be treated as humanely as animals? As a former teacher, I can’t imagine trying to teach in this weather. My heart (and a few dollars) goes out to the teachers, staff and the children. Join me.”
After writing the letter, Kelly called a local air conditioning company and inquired about buying a window-unit air conditioner to donate to the school.
“I was told that can’t happen because of union regulations, plus he said he thought only administrative offices can have them,” she said. “It’s a liability issue.”
In disbelief, she called a friend who works at Chicago Public Schools, who thought the air conditioning salesman was correct — air conditioners could not be donated.
Kelly was crushed but not deterred. That afternoon, she sent an email to What’s Your Problem?
She wanted to know if she had been given good information. She wanted to know if there was any way to provide relief to the students at Hendricks Academy. She wanted to know if there was any way she could make a difference.
“I just can’t believe this,” Kelly said. “Private schools can have (air conditioning) units, other public places have units, but (public) school kids can’t?”
The Problem Solver called Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman Marielle Sainvilus, who said Kelly had received bad information.
“We are open to accepting donations of air conditioners,” Sainvilus said. “Anybody can make a donation.”
The only caveat, she said, is that such donations must be vetted by CPS first to ensure they are up to code and the school in question has the infrastructure to support the donation.
“We would encourage people to call the school district first, and we would be happy to discuss their options,” Sainvilus said.
Over the next several weeks, representatives from CPS worked with Kelly, and the building’s engineer contacted her to discuss which type of air conditioning units would work best in the school.
Kelly and two friends, Mary Spellman and Eve Moran, chipped in and purchased three air conditioners for the school, at a total cost of $1,339. The women bought two portable units for the school’s library and a large window unit for the computer lab.
All three of the air conditioners were delivered Thursday amid another heat wave — and just days before 340 students descend on Hendricks Academy for Tuesday’s start of classes.
The three friends visited the school shortly after the air conditioners were delivered. They saw an immediate return on their donation, as the two portable units hummed along in the library, cooling it by about 10 degrees.
“It’s direct, there’s no overhead, there’s no administrative fees,” Spellman said. “And I can see the difference.”
So could Perisin. Putting window units in every classroom would cost about $50,000, Perisin said, a tab she referred to as “cost prohibitive.”
The three donated air conditioners will allow the school to stagger students’ visits to the library and computer lab on particularly hot days, giving each of them some relief from the heat.
“It’s going to make such a huge difference,” Perisin said. “They really were thinking of students first.”
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