This school year there have been many changes since last, one being new HVAC systems installed throughout the whole school. These HVAC systems caused the school to start later because the systems weren’t completely finished, and the school still needed to add some finishing touches this November.
In my opinion, I think the systems being down and unfinished made me feel a little cold, but it wasn’t unbearable. On the other hand, the noise was pretty bad in Mrs. Michelle McCanna’s room. One day, towards the beginning of the year, Mrs. McCanna’s math classes ended up leaving her room to go into the library during the day because the noise was so bad in her room. She also had to put stacks of heavy, hardcover books on top of the vents to reduce the noise and cold air. I don’t think that there has been much of an improvement overall, some classrooms are still very cold, and others are very hot.
Students I interviewed had different conclusions, they didn’t see much of a change.
“Definitely, it is definitely warmer in the school but now I’m not really used to it because it’s kind of colder outside but warm in here so I have to plan good outfits,” Kelsey Simons, eighth grade student, said.
“I think in some classes it helped out and in other classes it didn’t really do much but overall I think it was a good idea,” Joshua Shodel, eighth grade student, said.
Students said the changes didn’t bother them much but they did notice a slight change.
“It didn’t bother me all too much but I saw a lot of students have issues with being cold and not being able to focus because they couldn’t get comfortable,” Josh said.
The teachers all throughout the middle school all have been affected, good and bad, by the new systems. All teachers reached the same conclusion that they didn’t think the new HVAC systems were really worth all the cost and hassle.
“In the morning it seems to be okay but as the day goes on it seems to get very cold in here, and most of my students do not want to sit by the heaters because it is blowing cold air all the time,” Mrs. Tina Boyd, fifth grade English teacher, said.
“There is not really much you can do on your own, I have talked to the superintendent about the issue to see what changes can be made and she has looked up things and has followed up with me and tried to see which rooms are cold, which rooms aren’t cold. We also kind of surveyed all of the teachers in the middle school to see where each room stood so we can try to finish up on problems and fix them,” Mrs. Boyd said.
“I guess it’s a little frustrating because it’s a brand new system, you’d think it would work correctly and my kids would be adequately heated or cooled and it just seems like there have been a lot of kinks and quirks in the system. We can’t get it perfectly right,” said Mrs. Boyd.
“My thought are I’m a little frustrated, I’m also concerned that the district paid the money for these brand new heating and cooling systems and they don’t seem to be functioning optimally, so it would be nice to get them into a consistently working order where the temperature is ambient so the kids and me are comfortable,” said Mrs. Shanda Wyatt, sixth grade teacher.
“The heating in the room is inconcistiant and it can make for a pretty chilly environment which can make myself and the kids uncomfortable, offtask, and can make it difficult to focus on learning,” said Mrs. Wyatt.
“When it gets quite chilly we will turn them [her space heaters] on, there was a period of time where Mr. Griffith had purchased a space heater, we had that up in the front of the room, but since the HVAC system had been flushed out he took that space heater away,” said Mrs. Wyatt.
