Country Club Hills schools say heating problems fixed, but parents say buildings are still cold
CHICAGO (CBS) -- With temperatures expected to drop and stay below freezing for the rest of the week, some south suburban parents are raising concerns about heat in their schools.
Parents of students at two schools in Country Club Hills said there have been heating issues all week, and while the district said the problems have been fixed, parents say the schools are still too cold.
Administrators at Country Club Hills School District 160 acknowledged there were heating issues this week at two of their three schools, but some parents said they weren't informed of the problem until after their kids came home, and they think the district owes them a better explanation.
"I feel like we're being gaslighted a little bit, because they're saying one thing and then it's something totally different that we're finding out after the fact," concerned mom Carling Wilson said.
Wilson is one of the Country Club Hills parents concerned about conditions inside their kids' schools after finding out about heat issues earlier this week.
"My child was in a coat, and so was his teacher, and so I asked, 'Hey is there heat?' and the teacher says, 'No. My room is freezing. We had to relocate the students,'" Sequoia Williams said.
Parents said Southwood Middle School and Meadowview Intermediate School have been having heat troubles since students returned from their Thanksgiving break on Monday.
Just before 8 a.m. Wednesday, the principal at Southwood emailed parents to say the heat had been restored, adding "Please send your students to school as soon as possible because we are up and running."
The message board at Meadowview welcomed kids back to school on Wednesday, but some parents said it was not a warm welcome.
"I talked to my son. I came and checked on him. He said his classroom is warm. The cafeteria is cold. The media room is cold. There are still rooms that are cold," Wilson said.
In a statement, the district superintendent's office acknowledged they are "aware of a small number of classrooms in two buildings where the temperatures were not within normal limits" earlier this week.
"The school district has been working with local HVAC contractors to mitigate those few classrooms to ensure that all equipment was operating properly. All classrooms in all three schools are at the required room temperature of 68 degrees or higher."
However, Williams said the entire building at Southwood was without heat earlier this week, and most of Meadowview also was cold, not just a few rooms in both buildings.
Parents said they don't trust assurances from the district that the problems have been fixed.
"They are not being honest, they are not being transparent, and I don't feel like our children are safe right now," Williams said.
Parents want the Illinois State Board of Education or the Regional Superintendent of Schools for South Cook County to get involved for oversight of the heating issues.
"We're asking them to come out and evaluate the buildings to let us know if the district is being honest with us, and if it's safe for us to have our children in the buildings," Williams said.
Williams also said she plans to call for an emergency parents' meeting to discuss the problems.
"We need to make an executive decision as parents to keep our children home until we get an email from the Illinois St ate Board of Education letting us know that our kids are okay," she said.
The Illinois State Board of Education did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Regional Superintendent of Schools for South Cook County said he's heard from parents, contacted the superintendent of District 160, sent a licensed technician to do temperature inspections in the schools, and was waiting on the results.
