Effort to adapt Philly schools to rising temperatures under threat

By Angie Bacha (Green Philly) and Elizabeth Miller (Climate Central)

This is the first story in a two-part series examining climate change and Philadelphia schools. It was produced through a collaboration between Green Philly and Climate Central. Link to the first part of the story here.

On hot days, Jaimie Fortin’s first-grade daughter comes home from school at Henry H. Houston Elementary in Mount Airy, frustrated and uncomfortable.

“Her sensitivity is incredibly high,” Fortin said of her daughter, whose autism makes her vulnerable to sensory overload and other impacts from physical discomfort. “She’s already inattentive and hyperactive, but the heat makes it worse. She’ll say things like, ‘My skin feels bad. I can’t read.’ She’ll cry.”

As pollution traps heat and temperatures rise, public schools across Philadelphia and the nation are facing more extreme weather and growing needs for air conditioning. The funding needs are so dire that even Eagles Quarterback Jalen Hurts has stepped in to donate $200,000 to air conditioning units. Yet many Philadelphia schools face enormous maintenance backlogs, making it harder to adapt to the changing climate.

Federal programs created under the Inflation Reduction Act were starting to help area schools meet steep costs of installing renewable energy systems and other building improvements to address health concerns exacerbated by climate change. The Trump administration has put those funds in jeopardy after just a few schools were able to move quickly enough to access their benefits.

When it gets hot enough that Philadelphia’s schools close early and send kids home, Fortin, who owns a hair salon, faces a tough decision. She can call six to eight clients to reschedule the rest of her day, potentially losing that business, or keep her child with her in the salon, which is challenging for her daughter, her customers, and herself.

“I have to weigh what will hurt the business less,” Fortin said. “We need the money.”

Lila Polsz, 7, a first grade student at Henry H. Houston Elementary School walks to the car after school with her mom Jaimie Fortin in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025.

Tax credit-like rebates available through the federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was passed by Congress and signed into law by Pres. Joe Biden, were helping schools plan for and transition to cleaner energy with cash reimbursements of at least 30%. Those upgrades could include electric school buses and charging infrastructure, which produce no tailpipe emissions, solar panels, industrial batteries and geothermal systems to provide electricity and heat without releasing pollution that harms the climate and damages children’s health.

When the Trump Administration ordered a freeze on federal grants in late January, that freeze affected energy tax credits for schools. While the freeze was rescinded a day later, the future of the entire IRA remains unclear. The program was enacted by Congress and can technically only be rescinded by Congress, which is currently controlled by Republicans. Some Republicans have voiced support for the investment and job-creation some IRA components spurred in their districts, but benefits to schools haven’t been mentioned among the policies they might be hesitant to reverse.

Fighting off the heat

Looking after kids when it’s too hot for school can put severe pressures on their families, particularly for working-class and lower-income families. After-school programs occasionally offer a place for Philadelphia’s kids to stay after an unexpected early dismissal, but only for certain programs on certain days, said Lauren Wiley, a parent of a fifth-grader at Henry H. Houston Elementary.

Families often coordinate to provide childcare for multiple families when cancellations or early dismissals are called on hot days.

“If school starts before Labor Day, we hold our breath, and just figure that there will be a few days that are early release or it’s going to be canceled,” Wiley said.

At the end of 2024, Philadelphia had 57 schools without adequate air conditioning, according to the school district. Kids at those schools were sent home early when average temperatures on Aug. 27 exceeded historic averages by more than seven degrees, reaching temperatures made three times more likely by climate change, analysis using Climate Central’s Climate Shift Index shows.

Last year, excessive heat prompted early dismissal at dozens of schools in the School District of Philadelphia, sending kids home before noon. Again this August, kids in schools without adequate air conditioning were sent home hours early.

Hot classrooms aren’t just uncomfortable. As Fortin’s daughter has noted, high temperatures make it harder to learn.

A study of 10 million students linked a one-degree Fahrenheit rise in temperatures with a 1% decline in that year’s learning. Warmer classrooms disproportionately impact minority students. Black and Hispanic students are less likely to attend schools with adequate air conditioning, and research has linked those hot classrooms with achievement gaps that see those students often left behind.

Children are also among the most vulnerable to heat-related illnesses.

Philadelphia schools aren’t alone. Half of schools in the United States need to upgrade or repair at least two major systems, such as heating, ventilation, air conditioning, or plumbing, according to the Government Accountability Office.

“Kids spend more time on school campuses than any other place—awake—and many campuses are not prepared for extreme heat and wildfire smoke and other forms of extreme weather,” said Jonathan Klein, a co-founder of UndauntedK12, a nonprofit that advocates for climate-adapted and clean-powered schools.

Now, he said, climate change could widen the infrastructure gaps that often leave minority students behind.

“In our most historically marginalized communities, kids are in the buildings least prepared to keep them safe and learning,” he said.

These uncapped and noncompetitive IRA funds were expected to be available until the early to mid-2030s if the program continued to see federal support. Some school districts are expecting sizable checks: A district in Manchester, CT, is slated to see $2.5 million. Seattle Public Schools received $7.9 million.

Uncertainty for money-saving eco-upgrades

Fort Washington Elementary, in Upper Dublin Township, could rank among the first schools in Pennsylvania to see one of these checks — provided the Internal Revenue Service continues to reimburse them. A tornado tore through the township in the fall of 2021, damaging more than 100 homes and ripping the roof off several classrooms at the elementary school.

As the school moved to rebuild and renovate after the storm, which spun off from the remnants of Hurricane Ida, Upper Dublin School District leadership decided to use the opportunity to add a geothermal well field at Fort Washington. They looked to the success of a geothermal system in place at a nearby high school since 2012.

Photo: Erin Blewett

Geothermal systems transfer energy from deep within the ground, which hold a consistent temperature of 55°F year-round. At Fort Washington Elementary, construction involved boring 60 wells as deep as 500 to 600 feet, according to Ed Doll, project manager with CMTA, Inc., the energy and engineering firm working with Upper Dublin School District on its renewable energy upgrades.

Up-front costs are particularly high for installing geothermal systems due to the extensive construction of the wellfield. But some of those costs would be mitigated by the forthcoming rebate made available through the Inflation Reduction Act.

“It just makes too much sense.”
Ed Doll, project manager with CMTA

Governor Josh Shapiro’s office reached out to tell district staff they were eligible for IRA funding in the summer of 2023. The school board agreed to apply for the rebate, but doing so has meant seeking additional support during the process by hiring a tax professional to complete their rebate application. The benefits are expected to outweigh the costs of hiring help, said Andrew Lechman, Upper Dublin School District’s chief financial officer.

“The process is more detailed and complex than other grant programs we’ve dealt with before,” Lechman said. “We could not have done this on our own.”

Since public schools do not pay taxes, they could not file for the kinds of credits long provided to other kinds of organizations to encourage renewable energy projects.

“That funding was available before, but it wasn’t available for tax-exempt entities,” Doll said. The Fort Washington Elementary geothermal wellfield is part of a larger contract for energy efficiency projects in the school district.

Despite the up-front costs, Doll said he will continue to vouch for geothermal energy for school districts that can afford it.

“It just makes too much sense,” he said, pointing to the low maintenance costs and high energy efficiency of systems. “Nothing outperforms geothermal.”

The transition to cleaner power has some parents excited.

“Renewable energy is super important to me,” said Katie Reilly, former president of the Fort Washington Elementary PTA, and with a fifth-grader still in school there. She called the school’s move to install a geothermal wellfield “very forward-thinking.”

Because schools cover installation costs, then wait to receive reimbursement, there’s concern among clean energy advocates nationwide that these projects will amplify longstanding inequities.

“It would make perfect sense to me that the deployment of IRA tax credits would reflect the broader inequities in school funding,” said Sara Ross, co-founder of UndauntedK12, which is tracking schools taking advantage of these incentives across the country.

Upper Dublin fits that model, with a median household income of $158,000 in 2022 for the township, compared to $58,000 in neighboring Philadelphia. Other school districts in Pennsylvania that UndauntedK12 has seen pursuing IRA benefits include Phoenixville, where a new STEM-focused school will be built with a rooftop solar array and an additional panel in the courtyard for teaching purposes and Huntingdon, where solar panels and energy efficiency upgrades could save the district $5.8 million in operating costs over the next 20 years.

The Octorara Area School District school board voted in September to pursue transitioning the district’s energy to solar power, but expected that move to begin late this year or in early 2026. With the energy credits, the district expected to receive $2.7 million in additional revenue and pay off the installation costs in about seven years.

At least 300 schools across 38 states have moved to take advantage of this program, according to UndauntedK12. But the Trump Administration has already created uncertainty around whether the promised reimbursements will really appear and what fate projects constructed this year might see when it comes time to file for rebates next year.