Broken air conditioning at 62 Tulsa Public Schools campuses forced class relocations and indoor recess Aug. 31 as the National Weather Service (NWS) warned heat indices could reach 107 degrees.

District spokesman Kyle Boone told Tulsa Flyer that around 185 open HVAC work orders were spread across those 62 schools. Crews were actively working at 25 of the buildings. Boone did not identify which schools were affected.

The numbers represent a steep climb from what the district acknowledged just weeks earlier. On Aug. 18, TPS confirmed only "some A/C issues in some classrooms." Parent Lacey Helm told 2 News Oklahoma that day that she noticed the heat inside Carnegie Elementary during a Meet the Teacher event and was told a part needed to be ordered.

"If one snowflake falls, I always say that we cancel school … But when it comes to heat, there's really no advocacy towards it or anything," Helm said at the time.

Maintenance and facilities teams are working around the clock, Boone said. School leaders have been told to shift classes to cooler rooms and move recess indoors.

Superintendent Ebony Johnson addressed the failures in an Aug. 20 letter to families published by the Tulsa World. Johnson said extreme heat had strained HVAC systems across the district, causing mechanical failures. She said facilities teams were fully mobilized, every approved external vendor had been engaged, and additional fans and air-moving equipment were being deployed.

The heat is straining more than schools. KTUL reported that the Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) issued its fourth Medical Heat Alert of 2026 on Aug. 31. EMSA paramedics responded to 12 suspected heat-related illness calls over the weekend, transporting 11 patients to hospitals. Through Aug. 31, the agency has logged 428 heat-related calls and transported 278 patients, already surpassing full-year totals for both 2025 and 2024.

August 2026 has been one of the hottest in the last two decades in the Tulsa area, with an average daily temperature of 87.6 degrees, according to NWS data. Heat advisories remained in effect through Sept. 1.

TPS has said bond-related projects will include HVAC work, but the district has not released a dollar figure, timeline or list of schools covered. Boone did not announce a deadline for completing the current repairs or a date for the next public update.