A California education official has come under fire for suggesting students at a predominantly Latino elementary school shouldn’t get air-conditioning over a mostly white school because they’re more accustomed to the heat.

Denise Elsken, a Martinez Unified School District board member, made the comments at a March 30 meeting where officials voted to give air-conditioning to predominantly white John Swett Elementary over Las Juntas Elementary. There were only enough funds to install air-conditioning at one school.

“I really don’t care how this comes out, I would say 95% of the students at Las Juntas do not have air-conditioning in their homes,” Elsken said. “So whether that means those students are more acclimated and can handle a little bit more heat than the John Swett students, which I would say 95% of their residents have air-conditioning in their homes.”

Elsken told CBS San Francisco she was sorry her words were taken in a way that sounded discriminatory.

“It wasn’t discriminatory; it was fairly factual,” Elsken said.