Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Air-conditioning troubles cause class disruptions at UNLV, two CCSD high schools

Updated Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013 | 10 p.m.

A trio of air-conditioning outages Tuesday canceled classes at UNLV and two local high schools.

Facilities crews fixed the air-conditioning problems at Durango and Valley high schools, Clark County School District spokeswoman Melinda Malone said. Classes and bus transportation were to resume as normal Wednesday.

About 2,200 students at Durango were released early, she said. School buses transported the students to their normal afternoon bus stops at noon, Malone said.

At Valley High School in the northeast valley, nonmagnet students who walk to school or take the bus were released early. The bus students were taken home early. Magnet students remained in the school gym, where there was air conditioning, until their regular buses picked them up, Malone said.

Maintenance and facilities crews also worked to fix the AC unit at UNLV's Beam Hall, which houses the Lee Business School and Harrah Hotel College, spokeswoman Afsha Bawany said.

The cooling tower motor of the air conditioner broke down, and will need to be replaced. Crews began working to replace the motor at about 7:30 a.m. Two hours later, the deans of the business and hotel colleges decided to cancel classes.

Hundreds of UNLV students were notified of the cancellations via their university email and notices left in the building, Bawany said. They were advised to contact their professors for information about their classes and to keep checking their email and UNLV's Twitter and Facebook accounts for updates on Beam Hall.

Faculty, administrators and staff have been released from Beam Hall and were told to work Tuesday from home or elsewhere on campus, Bawany said.

Beam Hall, a 115,000-square-foot building was constructed in 1983, was renovated between 2010 and 2012. Improvements went toward signage, landscaping and flooring as well as exterior painting, doors, courtyard restrooms and security. The AC unit was not renovated.

The hotel college has 2,800 students and the business college has 4,000 students.

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