How a climate fix reduced headaches, mental health woes for St. Paul high schoolers

When students would come to the nurse's office at Johnson Senior High School in St. Paul complaining of headaches and feeling too hot, Rebecca Randall was always ready. She would hand out water bottles, apply ice packs and ask the students to remove their hoodies and extra layers. Even the nurse's office didn't guarantee a refuge for students, sometimes reaching 85 degrees.

But that was then. Last fall the school installed a heat pump cooling system, a type that makes use of the cooler temperatures underground. Now the school is no longer counted among the roughly 36,000 in the U.S. that the Government Accountability Office said need their heating and cooling systems updated.

Thousands of schools across the country have installed ground source heat pumps recently. "The interest from K-12 schools is off the charts," said Jack DiEnna, founder of the Geothermal National & International Initiative, one of the main voices in the business.

Jeff Hammond, executive director of the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association, agreed, pointing out that schools can now get 30% of their costs for new systems reimbursed through the Inflation Reduction Act. That's in recognition of the fact that they cool the air very well using little electricity. Only ground-source heat pumps are eligible under the IRA, not air-source heat pumps that are installed above ground and are more common.

At her school in St. Paul, Randall saw that lack of air conditioning had become a major problem for students and staff. Now, she said there are fewer headaches and the cooler air even helps the students manage their mental health.

"When you have anxiety and you get overheated, that ups anxiety," said Randall. "So they come and get ice … but I'm not seeing that as much now with our air conditioning," she said.

This year was the first time the high school was able to host summer school rather than having kids go somewhere else.

"I think the staff and students have been ecstatic about air conditioning. It's been really well received and something that has been a game-changer for us," said Tom Parent, former executive director of operations and administration at Saint Paul Public Schools.

Timothy Unruh, executive director of the National Association of Energy Service Companies, a nonprofit that advocates for modernizing buildings, said that climate change is making people think about schools differently – expecting them to keep people cool during heat waves and provide emergency shelter in extreme weather.  

In many cases, schools are the only place where kids can find clean and cool air. "I hear that a lot from our lower-income students that they don't have AC at home and that it feels good to get here at school," said Randall. At Johnson High, 85% of the kids qualify for the free and reduced-price lunch program and 95% were kids of color last year. Some multigenerational households she knows have more than 10 family members and only fans that blow around the hot air.

The heat pump installations also come in response to increasing understanding of the effects of heat. The GAO said millions of K-12 students are trying to learn in environments that are too hot and harmful to their health. Temperatures are rising and heat waves have become longer.

Children are more vulnerable to extreme heat because their bodies warm up faster than adult bodies do and they cannot sweat as much to cool down. Children with health issues, such as asthma, are particularly vulnerable and experience higher rates of absenteeism, said Erica Smithwick, a geography professor at Penn State, mother of three, and member of Science Moms, a group of climate scientists and mothers that works to educate about climate change.

"To a kid, it's really hard. You don't have the power to move to a different space to cool down, you're really at the mercy of the environment that you're in," said Smithwick. "It's really on us as parents to ask for this on their behalf."

There are some built-in limitations with ground source heat pumps. Not every site will work, because the school must have open area, such as an athletic field or parking lot, to install the underground system. Unruh said schools also have to find a way to manage finances between the time they pay the contractor for installation and when they receive federal reimbursement.

But for those schools that can make them work, there are year-round benefits. Heat pumps act as heaters in winter, so there's little need for an additional gas or heating oil system after one is installed.

Schools are also increasingly dealing with bad air from wildfire smoke, and many are located near roadways, exposing kids to pollution. Highly-efficient air filters that can pair with ground source heat pumps reduce kids' exposure to traffic-related air pollution, which disproportionately affects minority and low-income children, said Max Zhang, an engineering professor at Cornell University.

One study reported around 3.2 million U.S. children attended schools within 100 meters (109 yards) of a major roadway and were exposed to elevated levels of traffic-related air pollution, which he called an urgent public health concern. Children and teenagers exposed to traffic pollution for long periods of time have suffered from compromised lung development, as well as brain and heart health issues.

DiEnna sees a day when a school with a ground source heat pump could become an "anchor tenant" for a networked system where multiple houses are connected to the underground loop, similar to the system a Massachusetts neighborhood recently installed.

Whether they choose to use non-mechanical means, modern heat pumps or old-fashioned air conditioners, more schools will face the decision Johnson Senior High did.

"We're having more intense hot weather days and that can impact learning," Smithwick said.