Cool! All London District Catholic school board classes now have air conditioning

The London-area Catholic school board is marking a cool milestone, with every classroom in its system now equipped with air conditioning.

Five years ago, London District Catholic school board’s maintenance and facilities department identified the project as “a priority,” said the board’s Mark Adkinson.

Every year, the board made “small but significant gains” using Queen’s Park funding that was earmarked for school and classroom upgrades. An added benefit is increased ventilation for staff and students, he said.

Article content

By 2020, only a few schools still had partial air conditioning that included inefficient residential-style window units.

“They’re not very effective in a large classroom full of energetic students,” Adkinson said.

The final window units were replaced over the last five years with variable refrigerant flow split systems, except at Regina Mundi College, the high school at London’s southern edge which is under construction. Once fully built and open, it will have a full system.

The work was coordinated by the board’s five HVAC technicians, an apprentice and a controls technician, who also service the equipment.

The London Catholic board, Ontario’s fastest-growing Catholic school board, gained more than 1,500 students this year for a total of 27,500 students at 54 schools. The board has hired more than 1,400 new employees, including 450 teachers, since 2022.

Gabe Pizzuti is chair of the board of trustees. In a recent interview, he told The Free Press the board is about to embark on the biggest building boom in its history. They’ve asked Queen’s Park for funding to build six new schools: