SOUTH SHORE — Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools officials said Monday the district would finish installing air conditioning in every school by the end of 2017, a year ahead of schedule.
CPS has included $27 million in its capital budget for 2017 for air conditioning installation, the last in four years of updates for schools across the city that was originally expected to take five years.
"You cannot learn in a boiling classroom or if it's freezing in the winter," said CPS CEO Forrest Claypool at a press conference at Bouchet Math and Science Academy, 7355 S. Jeffery Ave.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said finishing the air conditioning project started in 2013 and originally expected to take until 2018 to finish will make it easier for kids to learn and more comfortable for teachers providing the instruction.
"We want our kids focused on what the teacher has to say, not what the temperature is saying," Emanuel said.
The final $338 capital budget is still subject to the Chicago Board of Education's approval at its next meeting on Wednesday.
Claypool said the operating budget, also expected to be approved on Wednesday, does not rob from the capital budget to cover expenses and the capital money will be used to make school improvements.
In 2013, CPS announced a plan with Emanuel to spend $20 million a year over five years to install air conditioning in all public school buildings. At the time, 235 schools — more than half of all CPS schools — did not have air conditioning.
The 2017 installations are expected to complete the remaining schools that currently unable to cool the building during the warmest months of the year.
CPS has consistently said over the past two years that it is ahead of schedule and initially expected to install air in 35 schools over this summer, leaving 65 to complete with the funding from the 2017 capital budget. But the estimate is now 61 schools as the school system tries to complete the five-year project in four years.
The capital budget for 2017 is projected to be $338 million and air conditioning is a quarter of the section of the budget earmarked for technology and programmatic improvements to schools and is the second largest project in this section of the budget.
CPS is proposing spending $51 million of its technology budget to upgrade Internet speeds in schools.
Two South Side schools will also get substantial upgrades through the capital budget.
Dyett High School, which will reopen for the 2016-17 school year, will get a $14 million renovation to convert the school into an arts school.
An estimated $4.4 million will be invested Dunbar High School to build new labs, purchase equipment and other improvements ahead of the school’s new curriculum on building and construction trades starting in the 2016-17 school year.
The final 61 schools expected to get air conditioning installed include:
Amundsen High School
Kilmer Elementary School
Richards High School
Bennett Elementary School
King Elementary School
Roosevelt High School
Bogan High School
Lake View High School
Ruggles Elementary School
Bouchet Elementary School
LaSalle II Elementary School
Shoop Elementary School
Chicago Tech Academy
Lincoln Park High School
Stagg Elementary School
Clark, G Elementary School
Lovett Elementary School
Suder Elementary School
Cook Elementary School
Lowell Elementary School
Sullivan High School
Cooper Elementary School
Madison Elementary School
Sumner Elementary School
Crown Elementary School
Manley High School
Tanner Elementary School
Darwin Elementary School
Mann Elementary School
Tilden High School
Dunbar High School
Marshall High School
Till Elementary School
DuSable Campus
Mason Elementary School
University of Chicago Charter - Donoghue
Epic Charter High School
North Lawndale Charter - Christiana
University of Chicago Charter - Woodlawn
Field Elementary School
Parkside Elementary School
University of Chicago Charter - Woodson
Foreman High School
Peace & Education High School
Urban Prep Charter - West
Gage Park High School
Perez Elementary School
Warren Elementary School
Gale Elementary School
Perspectives Charter - IIT
Wells High School
Graham Elementary School
Perspectives Charter - Leadership Academy
Whistler Elementary School
Harlan High School
Phillips High School
Yates Elementary School
Hirsch High School
Phoenix Military High School
Kelly High School
Piccolo Elementary School
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