The use of mini fridges in classrooms by teachers—and the $50 fee they are charged annually by Leander ISD—is being revisited by district officials. At the Aug. 1 board of trustees meeting, Jimmy Disler, the chief facility and operations officer for LISD, said 834 teachers had paid the annual fee to keep a mini fridge in their classrooms. Another 200 teachers were exempt from the fee due to medical reasons, such as nursing mothers. Disler said there was $41,700 in the “fridge fund”—which will be used to help pay electricity at the schools—and approximately 1,034 mini fridges will be operating throughout the district’s 42 schools. Some at previous LISD meetings and on social media have complained about teachers having to pay the $50, but school officials said dozens of fridges running at a single school turned into a substantial unforeseen expense as teachers brought in more mini fridges over the years. Disler pointed out a second problem with mini fridges operating in multiple classrooms: Some older schools do not have the capacity to handle the added power usage. Some teachers plug in an electric water cooler as well, he said. Disler used Giddens Elementary School in Cedar Park as an example. Twenty mini fridges are registered there for the 2019-20 school year, which Disler said has added stress to the school’s aging electrical system. “Giddens is very close [to reaching capacity],” Disler said, adding that modernizing transformers at the school could cost between $20,000 and $25,000. “We’ll have some additional data coming in September from Giddens.” Disler said “newer schools are in much better shape [with regard to transformers].” Board member Aaron Johnson said the issue should be more of a “campus-level” question and addressed by each school’s administration, not the board of trustees. “I’m interested in eliminating the fee without opening the floodgates,” board member Jim McKay said, referring to teachers possibly bringing in additional electronics, such as coffeemakers or hotplates. The issue will likely be revisited at a future LISD meeting. “We have been internally discussing the fees,” Disler told the board. “We’ve been drafting some guidelines to bring forward in the near future.”