Santa Maria schools receive long-awaited air conditioning, other campus improvements before class begins

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – When the new school year begins next week in the Santa Maria-Bonita School District, thousands of students, along with hundreds of staff members, will enjoy several new improvements, including long-awaited air conditioning at some campuses.

"Throughout the summer at the Santa Maria-Bonita schools, there has been a lot of improvement work going on, a lot of construction work going on," said Maggie White, Santa Maria-Bonita School District Public Information Officer.

Over the past several weeks, crews have on site at all of the district campuses, working on a number of projects, most notably installing long-awaited air conditioning at several schools.

"We've been making some (air conditioning) improvements to 11 of our schools where we're looking to improve the quality of the air within the classroom," said Javier Cavazos, Santa Maria-Bonita School District Maintenance-Operations Coordinator. "In the past, the district wasn't able to, for some of our classrooms, not able to condition the space, and so what we're what we've been able to do now with these mechanical improvements is we are able to now cool and and heat, and then also add an additional quality to filtering the air within the classroom."

Having air conditioning inside classrooms and other campus buildings, particularly at the older schools, is something many within the community and district have been asking for many years.

White noted the district wasn't able to provide air conditioning until it received federal COVID-19 supplemental relief funds, which is helping fund the majority of the recent improvement projects.

"For the past several years, we've heard concerns from students, parents and teachers that classrooms were warmer than they used to be, that the temperature inside was sometimes hotter than the temperature outside," said White. "We heard those concerns, but there weren't the funds available to add air conditioning to these older schools. When the Covid relief funds became available, we knew that one of the best uses of them was to earmark them for long term improvements like air conditioning."

With the new air conditioning units now in place, the district believes it will create an improvement learning environment for students, as well as an improved work space for staff and faculty.

"In the long run, it will absolutely increase the educational experience that these students have," said White. "Not only does it provide equity of a learning environment across our entire district, but these students will be much more comfortable. They will be much more able and willing to learn because the room they will be in will be comfortable. The teachers and our classified staff will be much more comfortable in their work environments. It's going to make a huge difference across the board in Santa Maria-Bonita schools."

Another improvement project coming to several schools are new playground and shading structures.

"We have a number of new playground equipment systems that are going in at several schools," said White. "We have shade canopies going up at all of our schools to provide areas for cooler shaded eating, for outdoor classrooms, for gathering spaces at the schools. That's something that's been desperately needed and on our radar for quite some time."

Unlike the air conditioning projects, the district said some of the outdoor improvements will not be ready when school starts next week.

"Most of these construction projects are finishing up this week," said White. "In fact, our maintenance and operations staff is going school by school to make sure that everything is wrapped up so no construction debris is left on the campuses or anything like that, but there are a few projects, particularly the new playground equipment that will continue into the start of the school year, so students at some schools may not have new playground equipment on the first day of school, but certainly we're getting it to them as soon as possible, and by the second month of school, they should have those new playgrounds ready to play on."

Much like Santa Maria Joint Union High School District and Allan Hancock College, Santa Maria-Bonita has also installed solar canopies district-wide, with most of them located in parking lots.

"The district has been able to, proceed forward with solar arrays at all our school campuses and include the district office," said Cavazos. "We expect to save somewhere close to $80 million for the life of the solar arrays and there is a reduction in energy consumption of two thirds for the district."

White noted the overall cost of the various projects combined is approximately $86 million.

"The majority of the funding came from federal Covid supplemental relief funds," said White. "Things that were designed to help create, welcoming environments for student learning. We knew that those COVID stimulus funds were going to be short term. They were not going to be ongoing long term budget adjustments, so what we did with those funds was identify projects at all of our campuses that would make the learning environment more welcoming for students and provide equity across our school district where some of the newer schools have air conditioning. The older schools did not. What we've done is taken those Covid relief funds and use them wisely for long term improvements."

Construction included a handful of other projects over the summer, including painting, reroofing, flooring repairs, field and restroom improvements, ramp and fire alarm replacement, tree maintenance at various campuses.

"We're extremely excited for our students to be able to come back to school and enjoy the improvements that we've been working really hard on," said Cavazos. "I think it's just going to create the best space possible for our kids to enjoy."

Santa Maria-Bonita is the largest school district in Santa Barbara County and operates 21 schools that includes 17,500 pre-kindergarten through 8th grade students. The district will begin the 2024-25 academic year on Thursday, Aug. 15.

"Please make sure you have that on your calendar," said White. "Children will be walking, biking, riding, being driven to school. Please obey the speed limits around the schools, and parents, please make sure your children are ready for that first day of school on Thursday, August 15th."