Alderman Margaret Laurino
4404 West Lawrence Avenue.
Chicago, IL 60630
July 19, 2012
Dear Ms. Laurino,
My name is SN, and I’m a rising junior at CICS Northtown Academy HS. I’m also currently in a summer program at my school called the Global Peace Class. We discussed the relations between our local and global economy based on the area around our school. We each focused on issues that affect our school; I covered a universal problem that exists in our school throughout the year.
Heat is always an issue in the summer. Along with the uniform of our school: polos tucked into khakis with dress shoes, the heat is at times unbearable and distracting. The sticky moist air makes the uniform VERY uncomfortable, and the heat makes it hard to concentrate (which is another long-run problem due to heat). The students and the teachers are both affected by the heat. The teacher having to change schedules or activities due to heat; the students being in a difficult learning environment. Having ACs will allow students to be more comfortable in school. It makes the heat less dreadful and allows us to focus clearly in a more soothing environment, the way school is supposed to feel.
ACs in general are very hard to maintain. Installing new ACs cost lots of money in order to buy them AND for the labor that installing them involves. For a big area to cover, like northtown, more than one AC is needed to cool the whole school (or at least the majority). The electric bill also plays a huge factor in a long-run after the installation. All this money has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere can’t be the school because we don’t have enough funding to sustain them.
A bit of funding is all we need. It will be a catalyst for our process of creating a solution for this problem over the years. Everything takes time to fix and funds will push our solution to a more reachable place.
Sincerely,
SN