STUDENTS SUBJECTED TO HEAT : CALVERT SCHOOL COPING WITHOUT AIR CONDITIONING.

Byline: Susan Goldsmith Daily News Staff Writer

As the temperature inched toward the 100-degree mark Tuesday, a few deaf students in Linda Schapiro's class at Calvert Street Elementary School suddenly stopped paying attention. Their hearing aids short-circuited after getting wet with their perspiration in the sweltering heat.

By noon that same day four students overcome by the heat were sent to the school nurse with bloody noses.

But such heat-related problems have become a daily occurrence on the campus, where more than 200 special education and bilingual students endure scorching summer San Fernando Valley temperatures in classrooms with no air conditioning.

Although learning is supposed to be the focus of the six-week summer school program, teachers and students find themselves spending much of their time trying to find relief from the mind-numbing heat. Temperatures topped out at 104 degrees in Woodland Hills on Tuesday.

Students sat at their desks, fanning themselves while others poured cups of cool drinking-fountain water down their backs. Teachers, meanwhile, repositioned portable fans, closed shades and wet their hair in bathroom sinks - doing whatever they could to keep the room and themselves cool.

``It's like a hothouse in here. I've had two bloody noses in here today,'' said teacher Beverly Fried, who kept wetting her hair down with cold water. ``It's so hot it's difficult for me to teach and it's hard for them to learn.''

The summer school session, which runs from July 8 through Aug. 16, is a five-day a week program that finishes by noon each day, officials said.

Although most of the Los Angeles Unified School District's year-round schools are air-conditioned, many of those that operate on a traditional schedule, like Calvert, are not, according to Ria Parody, a district spokeswoman.

Each summer the district offers summer school programs on nonyear-round campuses where the principal has agreed to participate. Even though they try to find air-conditioned schools for the summer program that's not always possible, said Janice Milgrim, an administrative coordinator for the LAUSD's Special Education Division.

``Calvert has special equipment on campus for deaf and hard-of-hearing students that makes it advantageous for the program,'' Milgrim said.

Calvert has special cabinets for recharging students' hearing devices and a closed caption television set, Milgrim said. The school also has a special phone that hearing-impaired students can use.

Calvert Principal Shelley Rivlin Hollis said she understands the district's need for summer school campuses, but she is worried that the lack of air-conditioned classrooms is making learning difficult at her school.

``It's miserable on campus not only in the summer but in the fall and spring as well,'' Hollis said. ``We're all very concerned because Calvert desperately needs air conditioning.''

District officials have said rewiring the 1950s-era campus to install air conditioning would cost $50,000 to $60,000 and the district has been unable to come up with funds to pay for the project.

``Our parents have tried to raise the money but it's a tremendous amount for 380 families to come up with,'' Hollis said.

Schapiro is worried that her students aren't getting much out of the program because they are simply too hot and uncomfortable to learn.

``They're thinking about how hot they are. It's hard for them to concentrate,'' she said.

Deaf student Nancy Ngo was finding it tough to think with sweat falling into her eyes and her hearing device failing.

``I'm perspiring in class and it's hard to work,'' she said. ``I want the air to be cool.''

Nancy's mother, Hong Truong, picked her daughter up from school Tuesday because she didn't want her 9-year-old riding the hot bus home after a sweltering morning at school.

``It's tough for kids to function in this heat,'' Truong said. ``Nancy is not complaining about class so much. She's complaining about how hot it is on the bus.''

Eleven-year-old Javier Soto spent the morning at school furiously fanning himself and wiping away a shower of sweat from his face.

``I'm hot every day,'' Soto said. ``It's hard to breathe and it makes it hard to learn.''

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Photo: Calvert school student Edwin Pineda, 10, fans himsel f during class.

Terri Thuente/Daily News