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Teachers, students and parents urge Glendora Unified to fix erratic HVAC at Sandburg and Goddard
Summary
Teachers, a student and the Glendora Teachers Association pressed the board to address chronic HVAC failures and new thermostats that limit classroom control, reporting temperatures as low as the mid‑50s and as high as the mid‑80s and asking the board to direct staff to present options and costs.
Teachers, students and the Glendora Teachers Association told the Glendora Unified School District board Monday that chronic heating and cooling failures at Sandburg and Goddard Middle Schools are impairing instruction and require permanent investment.
Doug Grandquist, president of the Glendora Teachers Association, described classrooms where "teachers and members are constantly either freezing or sweating," saying temperatures can reach the eighties or fall into the fifties depending on building systems. "We need attention. We need solutions, and we need to work on this," Grandquist said.
A student speaker, Dylan Chang, painted a vivid picture from a pupil’s perspective: "For me, every day when I go to English, it's like I'm living inside of a volcano. And then when I go to math class, it's, like, completely different. I'm living in Antarctica." Teachers described swings ranging roughly from 54°F to 84°F and said new thermostats installed under a state grant display temperatures but do not allow local control; staff said the CO₂‑linked fans can run even when chillers are off.
"Per OSHA, the optimum classroom temperature is between 68 and 74," said Nancy Drew, a Goddard teacher, and urged the board to prioritize a functional, responsive temperature control solution rather than repeated stopgap fixes.
Trustee Garcia asked staff to prepare a formal presentation on the HVAC conditions and options, including temporary and long‑term solutions and cost estimates; Vice President Lopez seconded the request and trustees signaled support to schedule that presentation at the next available agenda opportunity. Trustees and staff agreed funding and the scale of a permanent fix will be a complicating factor.
Why it matters: educators said sustained temperature extremes undermine instruction, damage classroom materials and lower morale. Staff and trustees acknowledged the problem has recurred across years and signaled a desire for a transparent report back to the board identifying options and cost estimates.
What to watch: board staff presentation on the status of HVAC systems at Sandburg and Goddard, expected as an agenda item following the district office's assessment and scheduling.
