As students pile into the school building in late August, escaping from the searing heat and expecting a cool relief, they are hit with humid, hot air instead. Students and staff also don’t feel much relief in the under-heated school building during the frigid winter.
Heating and AC issues have been a problem within this school for years and the community is tired of dealing with them. However, these issues cannot be fully blamed on the personnel who manage this school and building services.
The school itself is over 50 years old, so the heating and AC units struggle to keep all parts of the school at a common and comfortable temperature. Business manager Arlin De La Rosa said, “The units are older, so they are more fragile and susceptible. We try to replace them as quickly as we can, we also have a work order from people who work here and MCPS had 14 days to fix it. There is also a leading issue regarding why the school units tend to break down and overheat. Teachers, when it is too hot or too cold, turn off or on the units in the class, but to do this they need more units, which they do not have.”
Not enough units cause existing ones to break down and stop working. According to De La Rosa, MCPS regulation requires the building temperature to be set to at 74 degrees, which the school cannot change without approval.
For students, the temperature issue within the school is bothersome as they migrate from classroom to classroom. Some classrooms tend to be freezing, while others are way too hot. Junior Alina Parikh said, “I always remember to pack a sweatshirt for the cold classrooms and a tank top for the warm ones due to the discomfort. This year, the temperature in the school has been very inconsistent, varying between being extremely hot and cold.”
Predicting what classroom temperatures will be like causes students to have to guess what to wear throughout the day to feel comfortable. Junior Ruth Bayou said, “You can’t predict when a classroom will be hot or cold; one day it’ll be super hot so I’ll dress for the day with light clothing because the building is warm. But then it’ll end up freezing and I’ll be so cold I can barely focus. During the winter there’s barely any heating so I get sick so easily.”
Students say that a comfortable temperature should be a basic right that the school should be able to provide for staff and students. Without correct temperature regulation, students have difficulty focusing in class and doing their work.
