Several dozen schools in the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) are still without air conditioning, forcing the district to announce minimum days Monday and Tuesday of this week.
As temperatures hit record-breaking highs, another minimum day is on tap for Wednesday.
"I receive a phone call, 'Hey, can you come pick up your daughter because we're going to have to let her go because of the heat?' And even if I take her home, who's going to take care of her?" parent Salvador Garcia told NBC 7.
Garcia is one of many parents concerned about the lack of air conditioning at more than 80 schools in SDUSD.
His daughter is a fifth grader at Balboa Elementary and does not have air conditioning in her classroom.
"My house, I don't have A/C either. So it's just as hot at home or school," Garcia explained.
Just a few miles away on Friday, Crawford High School celebrated its new 7-acre football stadium.
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Some parents wondered why air conditioning in classrooms wasn't a higher priority over a new stadium.
"Everybody needs A/C but not everybody can use a stadium," said Garcia.
"it's not one or the other, we're doing both. We're actually doing both at the same time," said Lee Dulgeroff, Chief of Facilities Planning and Construction for SDUSD.
The district told NBC 7, both projects have been going on for quite some time, including 35 other projects currently in the works.
Crews have been working to get A/C in all schools since 2014. The stadium project started in 2015.
The district said in no way has it slowed down the ultimate goal of getting A/C for every classroom.
"We're working as fast as we can but we can do other projects at the same time," said Dulgeroff.
Of all the schools in the district, 122 have A/C already. That's roughly 66 percent.
SDUSD said all schools should have A/C by the summer of 2019.
The district just finished a phase of the project where 2,000 classrooms received air conditioning in 18 months.
