By the time December rolls around, autumn has collapsed into winter. Days continuously shorten, golden tans of summer have faded and Jack Frost is found in the brisk of every morning. As temperatures drop lower and lower with every day that passes, an annual issue arises.
Classroom temperatures have plummeted in response to the conditions outside, causing disturbances for teachers and their classes.
“Each year we usually have a couple days that cause problems but this year has been much more severe,” biology teacher Rocquel Stanley said.
Usually classrooms are an oasis from the frigid temperatures outside, however this year teaching environments have been drastically interrupted, creating a more prominent issue when compared to past years.
“I know teachers who have had to pull their classes out into the gym,” Stanley said. “They had no PowerPoints and could not use their videos because their classrooms were really just not good environments to teach in.”
The reoccurring problem of cold classroom temperatures brings up the question as to what is causing this and whether or not it is being fixed.
The Maintenance Director of the Puyallup School District Phillip Anderson comments on the issue.
“The recent cold snap in November saw temperatures drop into the teens for six consecutive days creating a challenge for the heating systems to maintain set points. Some units did trip off, which required a reset causing a delay in the heating process,” Anderson said.
As the long winter season continues are freezing classroom temperatures just something students and faculty have to live with?
“Units were checked and reset back to normal operations as soon as possible…the District heating systems were left in occupied set points around the clock to help keep classrooms at standard set points,” Anderson said.