It’s the first week of school in Long Beach, so, yes, it’s expected to be miserably hot. Expected not only by your weatherman, who’s forecasting highs in the 90s all week, but by everyone who goes to school or has a child in school. There is nothing so predictable as the searing heat brought about – perhaps caused – by the early weeks of the school year, unless it is the ensuing complaints of students, teachers and parents about the sad lack of air-conditioning in most of the school district’s classrooms.

As we head into fall, 34 of the Long Beach School District schools – about 40 percent – have air conditioning. The remaining 51 schools have either limited, outdated, or no air conditioning, and that’s been a source of heated and regular complaints over the semesters, with little action taken until Long Beach voters in 2016 passed the $1.5 billion Measure E bond to provide air conditioning and its accompanying infrastructure upgrades to Long Beach schools.

So, then, everything’s cool, right?

No. Nothing’s cool yet. Students in those schools without A/C are going to have to sweat it out this year and, in many cases, for nearly a decade. Bond money doesn’t come at you like a Vegas slot-machine jackpot, with a billion dollars worth of nickels pooling up around your neck. The bonds are sold over the course of years, with anywhere from three to a dozen schools getting the air-conditioning upgrade each year through 2025.

The projects are on the California State Architect’s Division’s fast track, which is good news. Not surprisingly, however, “fast track” is a relative term, and in this case, the projects can sit on the division’s list for up to a brisk 12 months.

The first schools in the district to get air conditioning, with projects starting as early as January and as late as September next year, are Kettering, Riley, Cleveland, Garfield and McKinley elementary schools; Rogers and Stephens middle schools; Jefferson and Linsey academies and Lakewood High School.

Projects starting in subsequent years are tentatively planned for:

• 2019-20: Barton, Burcham, Longfellow, Lowell, MacArthur, Mann and Webster elementary schools and Keller, Stanford and Washington middle schools.

• 2020-21: Alvarado, Bixby and Madison elementary schools; Cubberley K-8 School; Hughes Middle School; Muir Academy and Wilson and Millikan high schools.

• 2021-22: Fremont, Holmes and Twain elementary schools; Bancroft and Birney middle schools; Sato Academy and Poly High School.

• 2022-23: Emerson and Naples elementary schools; Gompers K-8 School; Marshall and Hoover middle schools and Beach High School.

• 2023-24: Bryant and Los Cerritos elementary schools and Tincher K-8.

• 2024-25: Carver, Gant and Henry elementary schools.

• 2025-26: Prisk Elementary School and Buffum and Tucker Special Day Classes.

So, it’s safe to say that relief is on the way, though in some cases it’s eight or nine years off. The kid hasn’t been born yet who will enjoy air-conditioning for the entire six or seven years at some of those schools slated for the last upgrades.

Meanwhile, for however long that while is, district officials say that the usual measures of dealing with the heat will be used, including planning strenuous activity during the cooler parts of the day, limiting time outdoors during peak heat and encouraging students to remain hydrated. Support staff, when needed, will open up non-air-conditioned classrooms in the early morning to allow trapped heat to escape and, as always, parents have the authority to keep their child home because of the heat if they feel the need, and students will be allowed to make up missed school work.

Contact Tim Grobaty at 562-714-2116, tgrobaty@scng.com, @grobaty on Twitter.