This note was posted as a comment but deserves some more attention:
how can our students in EPISD be expected to do good on the STAAR test when it is above 90° in the classrooms.
Red pen edit:
How can our students in EPISD be expected to do well on the STAAR test when it is above 90° in the classrooms?
elpasospeak 
When I went to school in Miami in the 60s there was no AC. When I went to college a the University of Florida in the 70s some classes had no AC. When I taught Junior Achievement in Alabama in the 80s there was no AC. In all cases humidity was over 80% meaning it was pretty intense heat. It didn’t impact my test scores and because it was considered normal we didn’t complain. Spend time outdoors and heat doesn’t bother you as much. Stay in AC 24/7 and heat becomes an issue.
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I completed both Grade school and High School quite successfully. Neither had air conditioning. Spent a good share of my military career in places where air conditioning was absent. Didn’t hurt mre. Me thinks nowadays, we coddle our youth to their detriment. After all, a little discomfort might teach some appreciation later in life.
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Really, so what has the Cartel at EPISD done with all the BILLIONS$$$$ in Bonds, including the almost BILLION$$$ Bond slush fund they just got?? Now they will need ANOTHER tax INCREASE so that “The children” can have cooler classrooms, fix the air conditioning and then when it gets colder, got to fix the heat. Maybe they are just holding on to all those slush funds so Cabrera can get ANOTHER pay INCREASE??
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People commenting here seem to be more focused on making kids re-live the good old days than on the mismanagement of the school system.
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It’s not that as much as frustration at the fact that more and more money seems to be necessary to create the perfect user experience for kids to learn. Countries that eat our lunch in math scores do it by connecting the dots between adult success and success in school. Parents partner in that because they also believe it will help their kids live better than they do. It would be interesting to see a study that looks at global test score averages and the typical classroom amenities found in the highest scoring countries along with per capita expenditures per student.
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If you study does not matter the Temperature however harder on Teachers…
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Unfortunately, schools built after the 1960s probably are not designed to capture breezes as the old ones were. El Paso High and Austin were built with huge windows the could be opened from the top and/or bottom to facilitate ventilation when the classroom doors were left open. I would not want to be in a modern classroom without air-conditioning.
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precisely. new buildings are like being trapped in an oven. the classrooms are also more crowded, which adds to the heat.
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Actually team teaching was in vogue in the 60s. They knocked down walls in classrooms and packed 60+ students in the space while teachers taught with microphones. Yes, it was a nightmare. College freshman classes often had 300 or more in lectures with breakout labs taught by grad students. So class sizes weren’t smaller. I do agree the window situation was better, but it was still hot and humid and there wasn’t always a breeze.
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Give me a bottle of Nyquil and a roll of duct tape…that’s how antiquated the HVAC in all schools are and what the depleted maintenance crews have to work with while the administration stays cool. All school administration offices are cooled by refrigerated air while the majority of classrooms are cooled by delapidated swamp coolers of a type (maybe a few are not). Do you think that Tim Holt’s boss is sitting in 90 degree temperatures? What about you Tim? And who cares what us old farts had to endure years ago? Quantico was and still is hot but there is no reason to use that issue about our schools. Broken bathroom doors, coolers that do not work, absentee Principals (and this is just Coronado). The list can go on. Kids can’t learn when it’s too hot and teachers can’t teach effectively to hot, sweaty kids. FIX THIS MESS EPISD! Group learning indeed!
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But we can spend 550,000 dollars on Marketing and Branding. And $1,500 a day on a guy that helps Caberea write an RFP that would have cost 2 million dollars if the Times had not uncovered what was happening. You know when you give a guy a 5 years contract worth over 2 million dollars if you fire him then superintendents have always gotten harder to work with as they begin to think they are more important than the children and they really don’t care if you do try to fire them as it is very hard.
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if they fire him he still gets a big payday and he knows that
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Lots of crickets from Mr. Holt’s computer …
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