JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Duval County Public Schools says one chiller is currently cooling First Coast High School as the district waits on a part needed to repair a second chiller following air conditioning problems reported during the first week of school.<\/p>\n
News4JAX heard from parents, students and concerned residents this week about A\/C issues at the school. On Thursday, DCPS provided News4JAX with two updates sent to families by First Coast High School Principal Ronnie Williams.<\/p>\n
In the update, Williams said the school experienced a building-wide air conditioning outage when \u201cboth chillers malfunctioned.\u201d He said maintenance teams were able to repair one chiller immediately, while the second chiller requires a part that must be shipped from out of state.<\/p>\n
Williams said that since the initial outage, the system has been cooling the entire school, though a \u201cfew classrooms have experienced intermittent outages.\u201d When that happens, Williams said students have been relocated to classrooms with working air conditioning.<\/p>\n
Students say heat has affected classrooms and common areas<\/p>\n
Two students told News4JAX the heat has been noticeable inside parts of the school, including classrooms and common areas.<\/p>\n
Senior Shylinae Wright said she expected it to be hot outside on campus, but noticed issues once she went indoors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first walked into school obviously it\u2019s an outside school so it\u2019s going to be hot anyway,\u201d Wright said. \u201cBut once I started walking into the rooms that\u2019s where it started getting hot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wright also said the cafeteria has been a noticeable difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hot. It\u2019s loud. Crowded,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s Florida. It was 100\u00b0 yesterday and the fact that school has no AC when it\u2019s supposed to be cool inside and outside. That\u2019s a safety hazard.”<\/p>\n
Junior Natalee Maryon told News4JAX she also noticed issues in major spaces.<\/p>\n
Maryon said the heat and crowded conditions can affect students differently, but said their is a concern for their safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt crammed and especially for a lot of people like myself,\u201d she said. \u201cWith bad anxiety disorders, it could affect a lot of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
District points to repairs and long-term replacement plan<\/p>\n
In a district-wide message earlier in the week, DCPS acknowledged \u201cintermittent AC outages\u201d at some schools and said its HVAC team works to make repairs as quickly as possible. The district said students may be relocated to cooler areas while repairs are completed.<\/p>\n
In the Aug. 13 update specific to First Coast High School, Williams said the \u201clong-term solution is to replace the school\u2019s aging chillers\u201d and that district maintenance teams had approved plans to purchase a new chiller. He said families would receive updates as soon as a firm timeline is available.<\/p>\n
The district encourages families with concerns to contact their school principal.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Duval County Public Schools says one chiller is currently cooling First Coast High School as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1040,794,94494,116,118,117],"class_list":["post-370907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-dcps","tag-duval","tag-first-coast-high-school","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}