HUTTO, Texas — Several Central Texas school districts are starting the year without air conditioning on some buses.
"They're failing left and right, and we're doing the best we can to keep them running and back together,” said David Uecker, the director of transportation for Hutto ISD.
Hutto ISD has 80 school buses. Currently, six have air conditioning issues. Austin ISD said it sees anywhere from 10 to 15 buses with air conditioning issues daily.
Hutto ISD has some buses that are over 10 years old, so there’s been a constant rotation of buses in the shop needing air conditioning repairs this summer. Each failed air system takes five hours to fix, so with four mechanics, the district can repair anywhere from two to four buses per day.
Even when fully functional, school buses still get hotter than other buses or cars. That’s because they use the same sized compressor that cars use, a TM 21, to power the A/C mechanism. And with a much larger surface area to cool, school bus temperatures can only decrease so much.
Uecker said cars are able to lower 40 degrees below ambient temperature because of the size of the car and ability of air to recirculate, but buses can only lower 20 degrees.
“The system is designed to only cool the temperature 20 degrees,” Uecker said. “So [if the temperature is] 107, best case is 87 degree air blowing out, mixing with the body heat and all that, you're going to see temperatures in the 90s.”
To deal with the hot temperatures on bus rides, Hutto ISD is reminding parents take extra measures to keep their kids cool. The district recommends packing an additional water bottle for after school and a wet bandana to put around children's necks.
The district is also trying a new pick-up system that will keep kids cooler and also reduce traffic. It plans to load four or five buses at a time while the rest of the kids stay inside in the air conditioning. After those buses have left and gone through traffic, the next four will start loading up more kids.
“The theory is, we're going to keep the kids in air conditioning for 10 or 15 minutes longer and shorten the ride six or seven minutes,” Uecker said. “And that combination, 20 less minutes exposed to the temperature, should be dramatic.”
The district is asking for patience as its crews work every day to keep buses running.
“We're doing the best we can as all school districts are,” Uecker said. “Parents, just bear with us. We are not trying to do anything other than keep your kids safe.”