McCallum High School is asking Austin families to donate fans after air conditioning problems left multiple classrooms and portable buildings without working cooling on Thursday, as Central Texas endured a heat advisory. Principal Andy Baxa said the campus needs quiet or whisper-mode portable fans, and the school is accepting them by mail or in person at its Central Austin front office.
The AC trouble hit the campus on Thursday, according to KEYE, which reported that Baxa said multiple portables and classrooms across campus were without working air conditioning that day. The school has already worked with Austin ISD officials to make several fixes, but McCallum says the remaining repairs will take a little longer to complete. In the meantime, teachers have been bringing personal fans from home, though the outlet reported those units alone aren't enough to keep a full classroom comfortable in the extreme heat.
Families who want to help can ship fans directly to the school's front office at 5600 Sunshine Dr., Austin, TX 78756, addressed to the attention of the front office, or simply drop them off in person at that same address, per the report from KEYE.
A Familiar Problem During a Brutal August
This isn't the first time McCallum has opened the school year fighting its cooling system. In August 2023, the campus's main AC chillers failed on the first day of classes amid triple-digit heat, according to FOX 7 Austin. That history suggests the current breakdown reflects a recurring seasonal strain on the campus's aging systems rather than a one-off glitch.
The timing this year is especially tough. Central Texas experienced one of its driest Augusts on record, and a heat advisory was in effect across the region on Thursday, per KEYE's reporting. The National Weather Service maintained heat advisories and extreme heat warnings across Travis County through late August, with afternoon temperatures reaching 102°F and heat index values peaking near 110°F, according to MySA.
Why a Permanent Fix Is Still Years Away
McCallum's cooling headaches trace back to infrastructure that voters have already agreed to replace, just not quickly enough for this week's heat. Under Austin ISD's 2022 bond program, the campus was allocated $66.55 million for a Phase 1 modernization project covering major upgrades to its HVAC, electrical, roofing, and plumbing systems, according to the Austin ISD 2022 Bond Program. Construction broke ground in 2024, but completion isn't targeted until fall 2027.
That project is part of a much larger effort. Austin ISD voters approved a historic $2.44 billion bond package in November 2022, the district's own materials show, setting aside funding for more than 300 targeted repair projects meant to address chronic HVAC, roofing, and plumbing deficiencies districtwide. It represents the largest school bond package in Central Texas history, underscoring just how widespread the deferred-maintenance backlog has become across aging Austin ISD campuses.
There's a structural reason districts lean on bonds instead of fixing HVAC systems with everyday operating dollars. Texas school districts rely primarily on voter-approved bond funds for capital HVAC overhauls because bond dollars are exempt from the state's school finance recapture mechanism, often called “Robin Hood,” whereas a major portion of local maintenance tax revenue gets recaptured by the state, Hoodline has reported. Austin ISD returns significant maintenance tax revenue to the state each year, which limits how quickly it can respond to urgent repair needs with cash on hand.
State Standards and the Cost of Uncooled Classrooms
Texas Administrative Code guidance calls for occupied public school classrooms and office spaces to be maintained between 72°F and 76°F during summer months, a standard cited by districts statewide during extreme heat events, according to KSAT. McCallum's broken portables and classrooms fall well outside that range while repairs continue.
The stakes go beyond discomfort. A National Bureau of Economic Research study of 10 million U.S. high school students found that each 1°F increase in school-year average temperature without air conditioning reduces annual learning by 1 percent, with three times the negative impact on lower-income students, Hoodline has reported. That research adds weight to complaints from teachers and families about how long uncooled classrooms can persist before a permanent fix arrives.
McCallum's struggle also fits a pattern playing out across the state this August. Multiple major Texas school districts, including Houston ISD and San Antonio ISD, reported widespread classroom AC breakdowns during the opening weeks of August, with campuses relying on emergency PTO funding or portable spot coolers while waiting for parts, according to Click2Houston. Houston ISD alone logged more than 11,000 HVAC complaints across 261 campuses during the prior school year, the outlet reported, a scale that puts McCallum's fan drive into a much bigger statewide context of aging school infrastructure buckling under Texas summers.
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