Denver Public Schools is hustling to turn sweltering classrooms into livable learning spaces, ramping up air-conditioning work across the district as part of a multi-year retrofit push. Several elementary campuses now have full AC, more projects are in full swing, and district leaders are timing the noisiest, dustiest work to avoid major class disruptions. It is not a quick flip of a switch: many buildings are decades old, and officials say the districtwide effort will stretch through the end of the decade.
What is finished and what is underway
New systems wrapped up this summer at Doull Elementary and Ellis Elementary, and active construction is moving ahead at Skinner, Cory, Asbury, Johnson, McMeen and Bryant-Webster ECE-8, according to Denver7. Heather Bock, Denver Public Schools’ director of construction, told the outlet that larger campuses need two summers to fully finish the upgrades, and that most of the heavy work is intentionally packed into summer breaks. Denver7 also shared a map that lays out which schools are done, which ones are under construction, and which are still in the queue.
Bond dollars and the timeline
The AC push is powered by the voter-approved 2024 bond. District materials show roughly $240 million is set aside to outfit the 29 remaining campuses that still do not have full air conditioning, according to Denver Public Schools’ bond pages. Reporting by the Denver Gazette notes that DPS buildings skew old, averaging around half a century, which helps explain why the retrofits are so extensive and expensive. Bond documents and FAQs from the district spell out that some schools are planned as one-year builds while others are mapped out over two years, depending on electrical capacity, structural quirks and how much work has to be done around occupied classrooms.
How crews are staging work
District officials have been choreographing the AC rollout across multiple summers. Construction at several sites began in earlier years, and more schools came online in 2026 after an initial batch of work in 2025, according to KDVR. The station reports that crews are staggered carefully, often firing up early in the morning and working from upper floors down to reduce heat exposure for workers and students while keeping as many classrooms usable as possible. Bigger, more complicated campuses such as Hamilton Middle School are treated as multi-summer jobs because of their size and the added complexity of the buildings.
On the ground
Principals say the payoff is instant once the chilled air kicks in. Jo Carrigan, principal at Doull Elementary, told Denver7 that the community is “so incredibly excited” to come back to cooler classrooms. The rush to install AC follows a summer last year when the district called multiple heat-related early releases, and officials, along with coverage across outlets, have pointed to those “heat days” as one of the drivers behind the bond proposal and the fast pace of the current installations.
What to watch next
Parents and neighborhood groups are expected to keep close tabs on construction schedules, noise and air-quality protections as the rollout continues. Denver Public Schools posts project timelines, status updates and an AC FAQ on its bond website so families and staff can track what is happening at their schools. For now, the district’s timeline aims to have all funded AC retrofits wrapped up by 2028, with the most disruptive work packed into summer windows to limit classroom chaos when students are back in their seats.
