As El Paso stares down a brutal stretch of 105- to 107-degree days, some Socorro ISD families say their kids are starting the week in classrooms that feel more like ovens than schools. Air-conditioning units are out at certain campuses, the district says repairs are underway, and for now everyone is relying on portable AC units and shuffled classroom assignments to get through the heat.
According to KTSM 9 News, parents raised the alarm Monday about broken air conditioners at some Socorro ISD schools. District officials told the station that extreme temperatures are putting extra strain on aging HVAC systems. Maintenance crews are working to restore cooling, the district said, while they juggle portable units and alternate classroom spaces. Some fixes are on hold while they wait on specialized parts that have been tough to source.
School Year Kicks Off Under Triple-Digit Heat Wave
The timing could hardly be worse. The district's 2026-27 school year officially kicked off Monday, KVIA reported, sending students and staff back into classrooms just as the region braces for yet another week of punishing heat.
The National Weather Service office in El Paso lists the July 29 record high at 105 degrees, set in 1960, and warns that dangerous and extreme heat will continue across parts of the southern United States this week. In that context, a classroom without working AC is not just an annoying first-week glitch. It is the sort of problem that has parents checking the thermometer as closely as the homework folder.
AC Fixes Were Already on SISD's To-Do List
All of this lands while the district is already wrestling with how to pay for upgrades to aging infrastructure. In May, district Chief Financial Officer David Solis told KVIA that air-conditioning improvements were among the needs competing with technology replacements, transportation costs and other priorities in the budget.
That does not prove that the current outages stem from any particular budget call. It does underscore that SISD was already treating AC upgrades as a major long-term need before this latest heat wave. The short-term test is whether temporary measures can keep classrooms usable while those hard-to-find parts finally arrive.
For now, the district says maintenance teams are working through repairs and moving portable equipment or classes where they can, KTSM reported. That might be enough to keep instruction going, but it leaves parents refreshing the forecast and waiting for a more permanent fix.
