For years, students and staff at Corona del Sol High School have complained about a musty odor and headaches, presumably a result of foul air circulated by the school’s deteriorating heating and air conditioning plant.

More than seven years ago, district officials determined that the system needed to be replaced and sought funding from the state’s School Facilities Board, which turned them down.

Since then — and particularly during the last two years — complaints about polluted air and inadequately cooled classrooms in the late summer months have increased significantly, according to Tempe Union Superintendent Steve Adolph.

Testing was performed again last fall, once again identifying the 30-year-old system as the origin of elevated mold and carbon dioxide levels in the air, and recommending replacement.

Once again, the Facilities Board rejected the district’s request to replace an HVAC system that at least twice has been called too old and too small to produce clean air for the now more than 2,700 students attending CdS.

Tempe Union has appealed that decision and is awaiting a ruling by Administrative Law Judge Lewis Kowal in the next two weeks.

Should Kowal reject the appeal, Adolph has said that the district is considering joining a suit filed against the state by the non-profit Center for Law in the Public Interest to secure the necessary funds.

Meanwhile, the district is proceeding with replacement of a portion of the AC system with funds that originally were earmarked for maintenance repairs at other schools in the district, which now must put their needs on hold.

The Tempe City Council and the Tempe Union High School District, along with many school staff, students at Corona and their parents, have said they fully expect the judge to render the only acceptable decision regarding the right to breathe clean air in a public building.

We indeed hope that their optimism is justified.

However, should the judge rule otherwise, a major public initiative needs to be launched to help our state leaders understand, and respond to, this community’s non-negotiable demand for a safe and healthy environment in our schools.

An editorial appearing elsewhere has suggested that the Tempe district should somehow find a way to pay the required costs or close off part of the campus. We disagree. The estimated $17 million cost to make the necessary repairs is beyond any local school district’s capacity to absorb, particularly in what now has become an emergency situation.

This is where state support not only makes sense but is the only logical solution.

Simply stated, students should not have to swelter in classrooms and inhale foul, potentially dangerous air because the state doesn’t deem such conditions an emergency.

The current deplorable conditions at Corona are the result of the state placing building and maintenance funds for schools at the mercy of annual bond-override requests and deferring necessary maintenance at schools, setting them aside until the need reaches crisis proportions.

Every homeowner knows from experience that it costs more in the long run when maintenance is deferred rather than undertaken within a logical, reasonable timeframe.

It’s time for the state to confront a real and immediate threat, and to honor its mandate to guarantee the health and safety of children in our public schools.