A year after the Houston Independent School District committed $40 million to its cooling system, the district still recorded nearly 2,000 HVAC repair orders in August while students endured one of the city's hottest Augusts on record. That total was lower than in August 2025.
Here's what to know
According to the Houston Chronicle, HISD recorded 1,980 HVAC work orders in August, compared with more than 2,200 in the previous August.
The number of requests marked "urgent" fell by more than half, though emergency orders edged up to 124.
Families at campuses, including Briarmeadow Charter, Bush Elementary School, and Northside High School, said their schools were excessively hot while the city went through its third-hottest August on record.
HISD has publicly pointed to the age of its buildings as a major challenge. "We understand HISD has aging facilities, and with aging facilities, we also have aging and failing systems," Alishia Jolivette, HISD's chief of facilities, maintenance and operations, said in August. "Our priority is to ensure students and staff have safe, comfortable learning environments."
Repair spending did not prevent every campus from running into new issues. Heights High School, for example, had 14 August work orders after $892,000 in HVAC repairs were completed, and parent Gris Sanchez told the Chronicle: "I don't understand how they still send messages that everything is fixed."
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More background
As the Chronicle reported, in March 2025, HISD's state-appointed board of managers approved a $120 million maintenance tax note — a short-term, low-interest loan — to cover more than $20 million in HVAC upgrades at 37 campuses. The work was supposed to be completed by April.
Twain and Elrod elementary schools had no HVAC-related work orders in August after receiving upgrades.
Problems persisted at more than 30 other campuses as the 2026-27 school year began. That included T.H. Rogers School and Waltrip High School, which each had more than 30 work orders despite receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in HVAC funding.
Christina Cardenas, a parent at an elementary school in the Heights neighborhood, told the Chronicle: "It was heartbreaking that any teacher has to ask for portable ACs on their wishlists rather than fun additions to their classrooms."
What's being done?
On the district's YouTube channel, HISD spokesperson Trey Serna said the district sends technicians to respond to cooling complaints. If repairs aren't finished right away, students may be moved to cooler areas, or campuses may use temporary cooling systems.
HISD had included $500 million for HVAC improvements in its 2024 bond proposal, but Houston voters rejected the bigger $4.4 billion package.
Duncan Klussmann, the former Spring Branch ISD superintendent and now a clinical associate professor in the University of Houston's department of educational leadership and policy studies, said the district may need to propose a new bond.
"It's a critical issue for HISD," Klussmann said. "I think it's a very important time for HISD to consider bringing the bond back. Initially the bond was a referendum of what was going on early on in the state takeover, and I think hopefully that has settled out some, and that the public would see the bond truly as an aspect of need."
Where can I learn more?
For more on how schools and Texans are dealing with extreme heat and cooling costs, these stories offer useful context.
• Des Moines, Iowa, delivered $25 million in energy savings even across 70-year-old buildings.
• Across the northern U.S., schools said more air conditioning is needed as classrooms become miserable.
• Houston leaders moved to require working AC in rentals as extreme heat intensified.
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