I can't imagine not having AC. All of the schools in the district in which I'm student teaching have AC. Staff can't control the temp because it's controlled by a center off site, and it shuts off at 4pm, so the teachers who stay late sweat in the humidity. I remember one day the AC broke and the school couldn't get it back on, so they sent an e-mail to all the parents to let them know. There were so many parents calling in to pull their kids out. My mentor's classroom had half the class gone by 11am!
No AC and I have HUGE windows that open easily. The problem is the my room looks into a parking lot. The heat off of the blacktop is worse than keeping windows shut. sigh. LOve that it's cooled off in WI now.
I grew up in north fla. We had no AC in our elem. school. We might have a small fan in the room. We survived. I still work in here in N Fla. My work area has no AC and many days it is in the 90s feeling like over 100. Very high humidity. My shirt was soaked today when I came in after my last class. BTW my room is the outside. I will SO BE HAPPY when fall finally breaks this heat.
In addition to fans and a cold water bottle in June I was bringing ice packs with me. Felt good to put it on my neck for a bit. The heat gives me really bad headaches and sometimes I even get nauseous. So glad it's starting to subside. Our building is very old and it gets unbearably stuffy so I feel your pain!
No AC here unless you work in the library or an office. It is horrible. I have two windows and a few fans, but once you add 20+ bodies it does not do much. There were a few days years back when we did early dismissal because it was so hot. I am surprised that more parents don't make a stink about it. There are days our rooms are at least 90 degrees if not more, and it is just not healthy.
I think at my school many of the parents don't realize how incredibly hot and uncomfortable it is in the classroom. Sure the kids probably complain at home, but they may think they're exaggerating a bit. The other day I had a parent just come to the doorway of my classroom to drop something off and she immediately stopped and said "oh my goodness is SO hot in here!" and it wasn't even that hot of a day compared to what we dealt with in June.
I have ac in my trailer classroom and it works great! It died last year and they replaced the whole unit. I can control the temp but it's loud and I get a headache from yelling over it...but still thankful. Two years ago my ac was out during the first week of school. My room was so hot a student passed out on the first day. It can be dangerous!