#Temperatures reach high 80s in Bronx public school

New York City schoolchildren are sweating out another sweltering summer in classrooms without air conditioning.

“It’s brutal every year,” said Shawanda Weems, an English teacher at PS/MS 15 in the University Heights section of the Bronx, who recorded indoor temps as high as 88 degrees this week.

“Last week a little 5-year-old just kept waving her hand, because she was sweating,” Weems said.

“It’s just too hot,” the girl told the veteran educator.

Weems said for years she’s tried to raise the alarm with the Department of Education and the United Federation of Teachers — to no avail.

This week she used four digital thermometers to track the temperature around her school. Images she shared with The Post showed temperatures ranged between 78°F and 88°F in her classroom, hallways and stairwells. In prior years she’s seen the mercury rise above 90 in the school.

The building, constructed in 1992, has a central air conditioning system, but its performance has been spotty for years.

And the furnace-like school is far from alone.

As of January, 20% of classrooms in the city’s public schools — 12,086 out of 59,809 — had no or non-functioning air conditioning, according to a DOE report prepared for the City Council.

This despite a pledge by Mayor de Blasio in April 2017 to install AC in every classroom by 2022.

At the time of the announcement of the $28.75 million initiative, the mayor’s office said about 26% of classrooms did not have functioning air conditioners.

Kids can’t learn in a “sweatbox,” Weems told The Post. “It’s not ideal for teaching or learning.”

A 2018 Harvard study found “heat exposure inhibits cognitive skill development and that school air conditioning can mitigate this effect.” The study — based on data from 10 million American students who took the PSAT more than once — stated that “without air conditioning, each 1°F increase … reduces the amount learned that year by one percent.”

The DOE is “currently developing a long-term strategy” to fix broken air conditioners, according to the City Council report. However, “A/C for All” doesn’t include funding for repairs, the report said.

In an email to teachers on June 7, the day Weems documented the 88°F temperature, PS/MS 15 Principal Sarah Sosbe apologized “for the temperatures in the building.”

She said then that a crew was working on fixing the school’s A/C, but “the size of the job does take time.”

“My friends that work in Riverdale never have these issues,” Weems said of the upscale Bronx neighborhood. “My students have enough stacked against them.”

The UFT did not return requests for comment.

DOE spokeswoman Sarah Casasnovas said, “Every student and staff member deserves a comfortable and safe learning environment, and we are working swiftly to restore the school’s air conditioning to full capacity. We’ve deployed portable AC units in the meantime, and our custodial engineers are monitoring the building’s indoor temperatures.”