What's Up With the Heating Around Here?
Editor's Note:
On the first day of Journalism class this semester, students were instructed to find a news story idea by simply walking around the building and paying attention to their physical surroundings. Here’s a sampling of what they came up with. More to come!
Abigail Coughlin and Alaina Hamlin had a chat with Mr. Bennett, our PRHS maintenance director. The topic was something nearly everyone in the building wonders about: crazy fluctuations in classroom temperatures during fall, winter, spring and summer.
Abigail Coughlin’s report:
Temperature issues are something that many schools in the U.S. have been experiencing. According to the website We Are Teachers, citing research by Harvard social scientist Joshua Goodman, 42 percent of classrooms in the U.S. don't have air conditioning, leaving teachers to rely on fans, open windows, and taking their classes for short periods.
Mr. Bennett, head custodian at PRHS, explained that the heating issues is very common. “All over, all the schools that I know of in Maine,” deal with similar problems. he said.
Why were room temperatures so high last fall? Mr. Bennett explained that the school’s boiler is known as a biomass boiler, which tends to be warmer than other standard boilers while running. It must be kept warm constantly; if it gets too cold it will shut down and possibly leak.
Are we working on fixing it?
“Yes, I am not going to let it go,” Mr. Bennett said, adding that “the cost of everything goes up.”
He also mentioned that a contractor scheduled to look at the boiler and related heating issues in February “is never here on time,” possibly due to a labor shortage.
Students told me they think it’s more difficult to learn when the room temperatures are all over the place throughout the building. Some areas of the school were uncomfortably hot and some parts uncomfortably cold last fall. The temperature issues got the attention of not just students, teachers as well, such as Ms. Hodgkins.
Teachers say the heating issues occasionally impact how they go about their jobs.
Ms. Hodgkins said her room is usually set to low temperatures because the stage lights she uses offer lots of heat. But with room temperatures rising, things got complicated. “It's better having a consistent temperature rather than having different temperatures because it's harder (for the stage lights) to function,” she said.
Mr. Szantyr mentioned that he walked into his room one day and noticed the temperature finally shifted.for the better “ It was the first day in the entire school year I walked into my classroom and thought it was cold,” he said.
Alaina Hamlin’s report:
Attending a school that’s only around 25 years old, you wouldn’t think of our building as “old.” However, 25 years is still a long time, and many things have changed since 1999.
One thing in particular that has not changed is the issue of heating (or cooling) this building. Since the school was built, students and teachers and students have noticed that rooms all over the building have a variety of fluctuating heating issues. For example, the upstairs had been noticeably much warmer than the downstairs (heat rises, but not like this!). At the beginning of February, there are not many people expecting to break a sweat while simply sitting in a classroom.
Journalism students were assigned to interview a staff member in the school and ask them questions about issues we think are important and see what we can do to fix them. Some issues however, do not have easy answers. Accompanied by two other girls in my class, I had a discussion with Mr. Bennett, director of maintenance at our school. Mr. Bennett, who supervises a staff of custodians, had no problem answering our questions and even said he asks himself the same questions – although he has become acclimated to some of the heating issues because he has worked here since 2010.
His most common response to most questions is that he is trying his best to fix the problem but it is not all up to him.
He is busy with many jobs around the school, so the heating issue isn’t always at the front of his mind, but he won’t let it be ignored. Since there are fewer people working on his staff at the moment, it is difficult to get this issue resolved right away. He expected contractors to arrive during February break to work on the pipes and attempt to control the temperature.
As far as Mr. Bennett knows this is a statewide problem that other schools are experiencing it as well. It is not as simple as identifying a plumbing problem and fixing it, or putting a fan in some windows. The boiler must be warmed to a certain temperature in order to function properly; if it is too cold it will leak everywhere. As far as we know, there isn’t much any students or staff can do other than call attention to some of these issues, minimize complaining and have some faith that the right people are working on the problems.
Editor's Note:
On the first day of Journalism class this semester, students were instructed to find a news story idea by simply walking around the building and paying attention to their physical surroundings. Here’s a sampling of what they came up with. More to come!
Abigail Coughlin and Alaina Hamlin had a chat with Mr. Bennett, our PRHS maintenance director. The topic was something nearly everyone in the building wonders about: crazy fluctuations in classroom temperatures during fall, winter, spring and summer.
Abigail Coughlin’s report:
Temperature issues are something that many schools in the U.S. have been experiencing. According to the website We Are Teachers, citing research by Harvard social scientist Joshua Goodman, 42 percent of classrooms in the U.S. don't have air conditioning, leaving teachers to rely on fans, open windows, and taking their classes for short periods.
Mr. Bennett, head custodian at PRHS, explained that the heating issues is very common. “All over, all the schools that I know of in Maine,” deal with similar problems. he said.
Why were room temperatures so high last fall? Mr. Bennett explained that the school’s boiler is known as a biomass boiler, which tends to be warmer than other standard boilers while running. It must be kept warm constantly; if it gets too cold it will shut down and possibly leak.
Are we working on fixing it?
“Yes, I am not going to let it go,” Mr. Bennett said, adding that “the cost of everything goes up.”
He also mentioned that a contractor scheduled to look at the boiler and related heating issues in February “is never here on time,” possibly due to a labor shortage.
Students told me they think it’s more difficult to learn when the room temperatures are all over the place throughout the building. Some areas of the school were uncomfortably hot and some parts uncomfortably cold last fall. The temperature issues got the attention of not just students, teachers as well, such as Ms. Hodgkins.
Teachers say the heating issues occasionally impact how they go about their jobs.
Ms. Hodgkins said her room is usually set to low temperatures because the stage lights she uses offer lots of heat. But with room temperatures rising, things got complicated. “It's better having a consistent temperature rather than having different temperatures because it's harder (for the stage lights) to function,” she said.
Mr. Szantyr mentioned that he walked into his room one day and noticed the temperature finally shifted.for the better “ It was the first day in the entire school year I walked into my classroom and thought it was cold,” he said.
Alaina Hamlin’s report:
Attending a school that’s only around 25 years old, you wouldn’t think of our building as “old.” However, 25 years is still a long time, and many things have changed since 1999.
One thing in particular that has not changed is the issue of heating (or cooling) this building. Since the school was built, students and teachers and students have noticed that rooms all over the building have a variety of fluctuating heating issues. For example, the upstairs had been noticeably much warmer than the downstairs (heat rises, but not like this!). At the beginning of February, there are not many people expecting to break a sweat while simply sitting in a classroom.
Journalism students were assigned to interview a staff member in the school and ask them questions about issues we think are important and see what we can do to fix them. Some issues however, do not have easy answers. Accompanied by two other girls in my class, I had a discussion with Mr. Bennett, director of maintenance at our school. Mr. Bennett, who supervises a staff of custodians, had no problem answering our questions and even said he asks himself the same questions – although he has become acclimated to some of the heating issues because he has worked here since 2010.
His most common response to most questions is that he is trying his best to fix the problem but it is not all up to him.
He is busy with many jobs around the school, so the heating issue isn’t always at the front of his mind, but he won’t let it be ignored. Since there are fewer people working on his staff at the moment, it is difficult to get this issue resolved right away. He expected contractors to arrive during February break to work on the pipes and attempt to control the temperature.
As far as Mr. Bennett knows this is a statewide problem that other schools are experiencing it as well. It is not as simple as identifying a plumbing problem and fixing it, or putting a fan in some windows. The boiler must be warmed to a certain temperature in order to function properly; if it is too cold it will leak everywhere. As far as we know, there isn’t much any students or staff can do other than call attention to some of these issues, minimize complaining and have some faith that the right people are working on the problems.
