Many classrooms will not have AC on a hot first day of school

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - As around 800,000 students across Minnesota prepare for the first day of school, many will be returning to classrooms that are not air-conditioned.

In St. Paul, 57 percent of district buildings do not have air conditioning. The district sent an email to parents Monday outlining steps being taken to help students stay comfortable including frequent water breaks and "cooling areas."

St. Paul has been making a massive effort to upgrade cooling systems the last several years, as 918,000 square feet of air-conditioned space came online in the last 5 years across 13 schools.

In Minneapolis, ten schools remain without air conditioning. In a press release Monday, district officials encouraged teachers to turn off classroom lights, close the blinds and limit the use of heat-generating technology such as projectors.

"The old brick building keeps it nice and hot in the summer," said an incoming senior at Roosevelt High School. "There’s probably like two rooms with AC so a lot of the teachers take their classes to those rooms but there’s too many classes to fill those up."

Parents were encouraged to dress their children in light-weight, light colored clothing and said families had the option to keep students home if they felt it was in their best interest.

Temperatures Tuesday were forecasted to be in the low 90s but, the heat is expected to fade by Wednesday.