COLUMBUS (WCMH)–Built in 1884, the school building that now houses Columbus Gifted Academy in German Village is the oldest school building in the Columbus district. It is also just one of 51 schools in the district without central air conditioning.

Principal Amanda Reidenbaugh says the heat is a challenge but everyone’s working through it.

“We are sweaty and we are in the heat but everybody has been highly resilient,” Reidenbaugh said. “I’ve heard no complaints from our students.”

Sixth grade teacher Kelly Aitken says the heat makes the learning environment a little more challenging. To keep her students cool, the shades are drawn and the classroom has several fans running. There’s also a cooler filled with ice cold bottled water and a parent donated ice packs for the students to use.

Parent Mandy Licone Conner is among those who work to make sure there are coolers for bottle water for every classroom.

“We have people who donate ice and so each morning we have people who come in an put (bottled) water in the coolers and then they dump the ice on there and that’s the water that the children have for the day,” Licone-Conner said.

Reidenbaugh says teachers keep an eye on the children to look for any signs of overheating. She says they hydrate with water bottles, circulate with fans, and stimulate the students’ brains to keep their minds off the heat.

Every building has at least some spaces with air conditioning units where they can go if needed.  But Columbus City Schools Superintendent Dr. Dan Good says in most cases, the electrical grids in the buildings would not support air conditioning units for each classroom. So it becomes a question of how best to spend district funds.

“Do we want to upgrade the electrical grid to the tune of upwards of a half-million dollars when you could use that money to invest in a new build or the reconstruction ultimately,” Good said.

Good says Kroger has donated 1,600 cases of bottled water for the district to distribute on Monday when the temperature is expected hit 90 degrees and the heat index may climb over 100 degrees.