Tuesday, May 24, 2005 | 11:09 a.m.
Hot classrooms and a broken air conditioning system at a North Las Vegas elementary school sent about 20 students to the nurse's office and then home early Monday.
While no students required medical treatment, the stale air made some uncomfortable, said Christine Posen, principal of Raul Elizondo Elementary School near Lone Mountain Road and Commerce Street.
It was the second consecutive day in which the National Weather Service had issued an excessive heat warning for the Las Vegas Valley as the thermometer topped out at 105 degrees Monday, and students in some classrooms had to sweat through the day.
The problems with the refrigeration unit at Elizondo were fixed by late Monday afternoon, Prosen said.
"We're up and running and it's beautifully cool," Prosen said this morning.
Carrie Nunez, who has two children attending Elizondo, said she noticed the school building was warm at noon when she picked up her daughter from the morning kindergarten session. Nunez then went to check on her son in his first- grade classroom and saw that his cheeks were flushed.
Her daughter did not complain about the heat but her son, who was at the school for eight hours, did, Nunez said.
"If I would have known the air conditioning would be out all day I would have came and got him," said Nunez, who said she wished the school staff had called parents.
When the air conditioning was on the blink in the school's main building, staff set up portable fans and teachers gave students numerous breaks for trips to the bathroom and water fountains, Prosen said. The school's 18 portable classrooms were not affected by the outage.
There were a handful of calls from parents this morning asking about Monday's episode and they were reassured that the repairs were complete, Prosen said.
The sudden rise in temperatures over the last several days has taken its toll on air conditioners at 22 other local public schools in addition to Elizondo, said Fred Smith, construction manager for the Clark County School District.
Millions of dollars worth of repairs and replacements are in the pipeline for heating and cooling units at dozens of schools throughout the district, Smith said.
While no schools were closed as a result of air-conditioning problems Monday, that's an option left to the discretion of principals and region superintendents, Smith said.
Monday's daytime high was two degrees shy of the record set in 2000, Weather Service meteorologist Jon Adair said. The excessive heat warning was effective from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday's high was also 105 degrees.
Southern Nevada's temperatures went into triple digits on Friday with a 102-degree reading.
For the rest of this week the temperature is expected to cool off to the low 100s and may drop into the high 90s for the Memorial Day weekend, Adair said.
The Weather Service does not expect to issue any more heat warnings this week.
A temperature of 80 degrees on Mount Charleston caused some concern as dry creeks bubbled with water flowing off the snowpack in the Spring Mountains. Kyle Canyon residents spent the day filling sand bags and reinforcing the streambed banks.
An extreme heat warning is called any day between Sept. 1 and May 31 when the daytime temperature reaches 105 degrees or higher, Adair said.
Since Las Vegas temperatures generally record the first 100-degree day around May 25, this week's heat arrived earlier than normal.
In July a heat warning will be issued if the temperature is 112 degrees or higher, Adair said. The Weather Service changed the guidelines for issuing such warnings last year after meteorologists studying temperature and heat-related death records discovered the old temperature of 115 degrees was too high. Deaths from heat began occurring once temperatures reached 105 degrees.
The Clark County coroner's office reported no deaths attributed to this week's heat.
Nevada Power Co. said it had no problem delivering electricity to its 700,000 customers on Monday, utility spokeswoman Sonya Headen said.
archive
