Benchmark – Adverse Situations
College of Education, Grand Canyon University
EAD-536: Strategic Leadership and Management in the Principalship
Hugo Guillen
Week Five
March 7, 2023
Management and Operational Systems
A student that is in a room with temperatures nearing or exceeding triple digits is not only uncomfortable,
but unsafe and presents an environment where effective learning cannot occur. In this scenario, we are
presented with a troubling case of classroom temperatures at rising due to a faulty air conditioning system at
the school. In an area such as Phoenix, this becomes a serious safety issue. The key decision that needs to be
made in such scenario would be whether measures can be taken to mitigate the dangers or whether to start
considering more extreme measures such as ending school early.
In order to make such a weighty decision, some additional information that I would need to know would
include:
What are the current temperatures in the classrooms and common areas in the schools?
What is the projected time for the air conditioning to be back on-line?
What additional cooling resources are available to the school from on-site, at the district, or through
local businesses?
How much is the temperature expected to increase outside?
How much is the temperature expected to increase outside?
What areas of the building are cooler areas?
Is the situation slated to become uncomfortable or unhealthy?
What are the recommendations from area superintendent regarding the issue?
Human, Fiscal, and Technological Resources
When dealing with such a situation, it would be critical that effective communications are being had
with the staff to ensure we are aware of the dilemma and the need for support to keep everyone safe. The
first thing that would need to be disseminated immediately to all staff through email would be that we are
aware of the issue and that we are working to address the issue immediately and that in the meantime,
please focus on student health and monitor for and issues with students that may need to be sent down to
the nurse if they do not look well. By doing this, the teachers understand that we do understand the
conditions and the concerns are being addressed. Immediately, I would work with my emergency response
team that includes admin, school secretaries, counselors, site facilitator and school nurse to ensure that we
are addressing this issue in well-rounded manner to triage the situation. The goal would be to analyze the
school’s situation, identify possible short-term remedies to the situation to ensure students are still safe. I
would need to identify the temperature of the different classrooms and see if there are areas of the schools
such as gyms, multipurpose rooms and libraries that are cooler and can be used for short term mitigation.
In the meantime, staff would be encouraged to allow students to have frequent water breaks to ensure
students are staying hydrated.
Concurrently, I would reach out to the area superintendent to determine the district’s response to this
urgent situation regarding the repair and analyzing the time it will take to get the system back online. If the
system is slated to be offline for an extended amount of time that would present a health danger to students
and staff, I would determine what resources the district had to mitigate these hazards or what fiscal
allocations the district possesses to help us procure short term help such as coolers, ice, and fans. I would
bring up the possibility of ending school early if the situation was projected to reach and unhealthy level
and work with the area superintendent to see what would be the most practical steps to take, while also
ensuring student safety.
Safety and Welfare of Students and Staff
According to an article referenced by the Regional Educational Laboratory from the Illinois
Department of Public Health, “Classroom temperatures should be maintained between 68 degrees and 75
degrees Fahrenheit during the winter months and between 73 degrees and 79 degrees Fahrenheit during the
summer months.” (Healthy Schools Healthy Learning, n.d.) It is the school’s responsibility to ensure that
student environments are conducive to learning and safe.
In Abbot v. Burke, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that school funding must be adequate to
ensure a safe learning environment is provided for students regardless of each school communities SES
status and that if “significant expenditure disparities between poor urban and wealthy suburban school
districts” existed and “poorer urban districts were unable to adequately meet the educational needs of their
students” this would be a violation of the students’ rights. (“The History of Abbot v. Burke,” n.d.) This
scenario does not mention t this is a funding issue, but if this was an older school with outdated facilities,
while other schools did not suffer from such issues, the district could expose itself to litigation for not
provided fair funding to all schools.
Collaboration with Faculty and Community
The stakeholders that would be involved in the decision-making would be the school emergency
response team (noted earlier), district leadership such as the area superintendent and specialized district
maintenance staff such as facilities management department that would be able to identify the system issue
and estimated time of repair.
The stakeholders that would be impacted by the decisions taken would be the students and staff at the
school as they are the ones directly affected by the situation. The parents would also be major stakeholders
as this is their children who are being affected. Local community businesses could stakeholder, as they
may be contacted for support in such a difficult situation.
Solution and Rationale
My proposed solution would be under the assumption that the temperatures in the building are
uncomfortable but not unhealthy and an understanding that it can be very difficult to coordinate am ass
exodus from the school because bus routes are tied to various schools across different grade levels and
release times and allowing an unscheduled early release is likely to cause collateral issues at other schools.
In such a case, my solution revolves around providing triage services to the schools.
I would immediately identify what room resources we have at the school to help students stay hydrated
and cool. Coolers, ice machines, and fans would be high priorities. I would also set into motion
procurement of these resources at the district level and have them sent to the school immediately. If
needed, I would contact local businesses to see what support they could provide regarding this situation
and use emergency funds if needed to procure what is needed to keep the student safe.
If there were areas in the school that were cooler, and we would move students into these areas if
needed and focus on student safety and comfort rather than on strict adherence to academics. Area s that
come to mind are the gym, library, and multipurpose rooms as they have more area for heat to disperse and
take longer to heat up. Cooling stations could be setup easily there and portable cooling resources could be
concentrated in such areas.
Once such decisions are made, I would make sure to reach out to staff to explain the plain for the
remainders of the day. I would also ensure them that this was for the day and that decisions about
canceling school the next day would be discussed with the district if repairs were not scheduled to be
completed by then. Next, I would reach out to parents through the district “connect-ed system” explaining
the situation to parents and allowing them to pick up their children if they had the desire, I would be
transparent and ensure them that their students safety was of paramount importance.
References
Healthy Schools Healthy Learning. Illinois Department of Public Health. (n.d.). Retrieved March 8, 2023,
from https://app.idph.state.il.us/envhealth/healthyschools/modulesClassroom.asp
The History of Abbott v. Burke. Education Law Center. (n.d.). Retrieved March 8,
2023, from https://edlawcenter.org/litigation/abbott-v-burke/abbott-history.html
Walker, T. (2018, July 20). The heat is on: Educators, students forced to deal with sweltering classrooms.
NEA. Retrieved March 8, 2023, from https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/heat-
educators-students-forced-deal-sweltering-classrooms
