T-R PHOTO BY ADAM SODDERS –  An online petition to get Marshalltown High School entirely air-conditioned is collecting signatures at Change.org. Over the last few years, high schoolers have experienced two to three days of early outs due to heat within the school for lack of air conditioning.

Air conditioning at Marshalltown High School, or rather the lack thereof, is a concern for at least 164 people.

A petition calling for the installation of air conditioning in the high school was created last week on Change.org by Carrie Harmon. As of Tuesday afternoon, 164 people had signed it. Two-hundred signatures are needed.

“It’s not fair to the students and faculty to try and focus in such extreme temps,” Harmon said.

In the petition, Harmon wrote, “The Marshalltown Community School District has a known history of dismissing school early due to the heat. However not all schools are affected. The only school that is affected is MHS. Why? Because MHS does not have a fully air-conditioned building – only the new wings and the new gyms.

“Well that still leaves more than half of the school without. This was not an issue years ago. Why did it change for the district to start letting out early? Well all elementary schools now have air – Lenihan has air and a majority of Miller has air.

“So these children are growing up in air conditioned schools, then get to MHS and there’s barely any. This isn’t right! The remainder of Miller Middle School and all but the few new sections of MHS need to be furnished with air!

“The community pays our taxes and the children’s education need to be a priority. The public in whole needs to speak up to make this happen. Let’s make this happen not just for our students, but for the staff as well.”

Harmon is hoping the petition will open the eyes of the superintendent and the school board on how important it is for the school to have air.

Harmon’s daughter is a student at the high school and the mother is concerned for her child’s health.

“My daughter started having issues her freshman year of suddenly passing out,” she said. “Now that she’s no longer in AC, she is much more affected. She’s not the only one affected.”

Andrew Potter, communications director for the school district, said everyone wants air conditioning throughout the high school but that the statement in the petition about early-outs not occurring in previous years is not accurate.

Marshalltown School District superintendent Theron Schutte said, “I can’t speak for the board on what type of priority it is for them but our stakeholders have identified it as one, in addition to the Miller auditorium and improvements at Anson in a prior survey.”

The last time the high school dismissed early due to heat was Sept. 16 and it was the first early-out dismissal due to the heat for the 2019-20 school year. The Sept. 16 heat index for Marshalltown, according to the National Weather Service, was 94 degrees.

During the last four years, Schutte said the high school has dismissed early one to three days each year for a total of two to six hours per year.

“While keeping our buildings safe and secure we can no longer hold doors open and through renovations there are fewer operable windows that can be opened to allow for natural air circulation,” the superintendent said. “The building doesn’t have the electrical capacity, as it currently exists, to utilize the number of mobile air condition units it would take.”

To sign the petition, go online to Change.org and click on “Marshalltown High School NEEDS Air Conditioning.”

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Contact Lana Bradstream at

641-753-6611 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com