ALBUQUERQUE, NM – As the days get hotter, teachers and students in Albuquerque Public Schools are finding it harder to cool down.

“No matter when we start and when we end, our schools need to be modernized so that we have comfortable teaching and learning conditions,” said Ellen Bernstein, president of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation.

Bernstein says the union has collected more than 100 anonymous testimonials. Teachers cite hot classrooms as a hindrance to learning.

“There is research that shows that children learn less well and do less well on exams. Uncomfortable conditions affect the entire teaching and learning process,” Bernstein said.

KOB 4 wanted to hear from the new APS Superintendent Gabriella Durán Blakey about these problems.

“We’ve invested about $26 million in heating, ventilation and air conditioning, $6 million in heating, ventilation and air conditioning repairs, and then we have $7 billion in infrastructure needs,” Blakey said.

Despite these repairs, several classrooms at Rio Grande High School are still busy.

Several parents told us that this is an ongoing problem and that no solution has yet been found.

“I don’t know about specific schools. Overall, about 10% of our schools have a work order for a classroom or portion of classrooms. We don’t have any schools that don’t have air conditioning at all, so I don’t know the details about specific schools,” Blakey said.

The superintendent says anyone sitting in an overheated classroom should bring their concerns to the principal, from there the problem should be resolved within a few days.

“We have over 143 school buildings, so we use a lot of evaporative cooling. Over the next week, we’re going to see a big difference in the efficiency of those systems because the temperatures are going to drop,” Blakey said.