Back to school: Air conditioning comes to 7 Philly schools due to Jalen Hurts donation
PHILADELPHIA - Jalen Hurts is helping kids stay comfortable at seven schools as Philly kids get back to the classroom.
Officials with the School District of Philadelphia released a list of the 10 schools who benefitted from a generous donation the Eagles quarterback made to the district in the spring.
Hurts gifted the district with $200,000 to be used for the installation of new air conditioning units at 10 different schools last April.
Those schools are:
- Clara Barton Elementary School
- Gloria Casarez Elementary School
- Castor Gardens Middle School
- Thomas K. Finkletter School
- Fitler Academics Plus
- Benjamin Franklin High School
- Edward Gideon School
- Roosevelt Elementary School
- Marian Anderson Neighborhood Academy
- William Meredith School
Hurts joined Superintendent Tony Watlington at an assembly at Edward Gideon School in April, when the announcement was made, and he took questions from students. He said, in response to why he was making the donation, "I see so much potential, so much opportunity, I see so many beautiful spirits in these young kids," Hurts said during an assembly at Edward Gideon Elementary School. "Everybody has a dream and they deserve to reach those dreams with the proper resources."
Eagles QB Jalen Hurts donates $200k to Philadelphia schools for new air conditioning in 10 schools
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is stepping up to help Philadelphia students learn in a comfortable environment.
Principal Awilda Balbuena is over the moon as she prepares to welcome her more than 450 students at Gloria Casarez Elementary School. "This is my 15th year, but it’ll be my first year with AC! This is going to be exciting."
An AC unit is in every classroom of the seven schools.
"There will be a lot more learning going on. There won't be that obstacle of let’s take breaks. Let’s get those water breaks," Principal Balbuena stated.
Gloria Casarez Elementary School in Kensington is one of seven schools that were upgraded this summer with 199 AC units, because of Hurts’ donation.
Balbuena continued, "It’s been really hard to hire teachers to come work here when I don’t have that AC as an option for them. It was part of our hiring strategy. We have AC this year, so that brought a lot of smiles to our teachers' faces."
A main issue for many of the schools in the district boils down to the aging buildings. Many of them are more than 100 years old and likely require a re-wiring by electrical engineering experts. Those experts went to work all summer on schools they assessed infrastructure-wise to begin installations.
For many parents of students at Gloria Casarez, when it came to the excessive classroom heat, opted in the past to keep their child home, something the principal hopes won’t happen again. "We’ll have kids in school more often because, attendance - when it’s hot - parents won’t send them to school, because they know they’re going to wilt in here."
Principal Balbuena says the impact of the AC units will also cut down on early dismissals. In years past, she tells FOX 29, they’ve had to dismiss between three and five times within a single school year.
All of that is hopefully behind the Kensington neighborhood school and six others in the district, with two more in progress.
The district still has 63 more schools to address. Officials say it’ll likely take another large donation like that of Jalen Hurts to get those schools sufficiently cooled. But, for now, a new day is on the horizon for Gloria Casarez Elementary. A fresh start and a cool classroom.
Officials with the district add that Ben Franklin High School and SLA share a building and won’t be receiving window units, but a different kind of cooling system.