Parents upset children are dealing with cold classrooms, lunches at charter school
By James Felton, James Paxson
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SAGINAW, Michigan (WNEM) — Parents say cold lunches and classrooms are some of the problems plaguing a Saginaw Charter School.
Syerra Jones has kids that attend the Saginaw Stem Academy of Excellence.
“It was brought to my attention by my daughter that they’ve been eating cold lunches all school year, that they don’t get hot lunch at all. And also, that they have not had heat in the school since school started,” Jones said.
She said her second grader, Aubreya Simmons, said her school days are chilly.
“Every time we go there like it’s super cold like every day. Even though I wear my sweater a lot it’s still kind of cold,” Simmons said.
A spokesperson for the academy said there is heat in all of the classrooms. They said it was discovered that one of the two boilers in the building needed repairs after winter break.
The repairs have not been made yet because of supply chain issues. As a result, the gym and cafeteria are closed until the issue is resolved.
Father Steven Gavit said St. Dominic Church owns the building used by the academy. Gavit has his own take on the heat inside this structure.
“I understand there was no heat yesterday. But I was not made aware of it until this morning, and I think around 11:00 this morning. And by 11:30 we had heat back up because we contacted our boiler people, and they got the heat back up and running. And so, there is heat in the building and all is well,” Gavit said.
Gavit said it is about 60 degrees in the gym, cooler than the rest of the building. He is waiting on a heat seal to arrive so repairs can be made to the boiler that heats the gym.
As for Jones, she said the academy did not tell parents what was going on with the heat. She plans on having her kids attend school elsewhere.
“They’re not going back next year,” Jones said.
The academy tells TV5 hot lunches will return on Monday and students will eat in their classroom until further notice.
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