AC repaired after hot day at 3 West Melbourne schools

WEST MELBOURNE, Fla. — Warm temperatures and no air conditioning Monday led to a bunch of excused absences in Brevard County.

An electrical malfunction left three West Melbourne schools without A/C.

Many parents took the district up on its offer of an excused absence and opted to pick their children up early.

Staff carried in fans Monday to try to keep children cool, and technicians were on-site for much of the day, trying to repair the schools' shared air conditioning chiller system.

"The school -- my classroom -- is 88 degrees," said Ethan Carter, a sixth-grade student at Meadowlane Intermediate School. "It was so hot."

Ethan said his mother picked him up early after an air conditioning chiller system malfunction left his school, Central Middle School and Meadowlane Primary Elementary School without air conditioning.

"She just came to pick me up," he said. "She got an alert."

At one point, the schools' phone lines also went down. %

%

"I got the email and everything this morning that they aren't going to have A/C, but we don't know how long," said Christina Lester, whose child attends one of the schools. "She's so tiny. I wanted to make sure she's good."

The heat index for Monday and Tuesday is forecast to be 100 degrees.

"We'll just have to wait until I drop her off in the morning to find out if it's on or not, and we'll move on from there," parent Donald Martin said.

Lester said the heat was too much for her child.

"I might have to take off tomorrow, (because) it's too hot in Florida," she said.

Brevard Public Schools said late Monday afternoon that it had repaired the air conditioning system.

Cox Media Group