Classes at Lake Myra Elementary canceled Thursday as school deals with AC issues

Students at Lake Myra Elementary will not have class on Thursday after issues with the school’s air conditioning forced students to come home early on Wednesday.

Parents told WRAL News they were notified their children would need to come home an hour after the school day started. Temperatures around the Triangle felt like they were in the triple digits, and several counties are under a heat advisory on Thursday.

Parents said the issue was going on long before Wednesday.

“We knew the air was out when we went to meet the teachers a week earlier,” said Andrea Burnham, who has two children at the school. “I feel like this issue could have been addressed and fixed earlier. It didn’t even have to happen.”

Burnham said her daughters said the classroom was very hot the day before as well.

“I just figured you know, the AC hadn’t been on and they had just tracked out. They were tracking back in, but surely they were going to test it and make sure that all was going to work before we’re gonna go back to school,” she said. “That was not the case.”

Parents told WRAL News the pickup line to take children home was “chaos.”

“There were kids everywhere, there were sign-out sheets, there were no IDs checked,” Michelle Bisanz said. “It was just sign your kids out and just take them.”

Air conditioning issues aren’t just at Lake Myra Elementary.

According to a 2020 study from the Government Accountability Office, nearly 36,000 schools in the country need HVAC system updates. Last year, some Wake County high schools were forced to close early because of faulty air conditioning units.

It’s not the only issue facing the district. Earlier this month, Wake County Public School System said schools would need to operate under a “fire watch” after inspectors found more than two dozen schools’ fire alarms could no longer signal needed maintenance to school staff.

It is unclear if Lake Myra is one of the schools with outdated fire alarms.

“If you're not prioritizing what could be attributed to health issues with children, then what else is not being prioritized?” Bisanz asked.

The school district sent out a letter to parents informing them they are doing everything possible to repair the school's AC.

“We understand this is a challenging time … and we want to assure you every effort is being made to repair the system,” the letter said.