You can’t go through a day at Fargo North high school without hearing “I’m so cold” or “It’s so cold in here.” Many students and teachers have complained about this problem. Freshman Brooklyn Bartles said, “Sometimes if I’m cold I won’t pay attention because I’m focusing on being warm.”
Some areas in the school are really hot. “It’s always warm in here,” said librarian Cindy Geston. “I dress down more, no sweaters, no jackets.”
The fluctuations and irregular temperatures are annoying for students and teachers. Social Studies teacher Courtney Walsh said, “Everytime It fluctuates, all the students come in and comment on it.”
It is hard to know what to wear to school throughout the year since the temperature indoors fluctuates so much. It can also make it difficult to focus during classes. Freshman Ellie Wallevand said, “I talk more when it’s cold because I want to talk about how cold it is,” and junior Autumn Smith said, “ If it’s hot and I don’t have a sweatshirt, I focus on that more than school.”
The inconsistent temperatures are a distraction in the school day.
“Students would constantly ask to go get their sweatshirts or constantly complain about how cold it is,” social studies teacher Derek Ouren said. They even got a fireplace for his room. “The fall semester kids and I pulled together some resources to get a fireplace, which brings more heat to the room.”
Big buildings are hard to regulate, though. Janitor Jeremey Bladow said, “North uses Johnson controls and we use the valve system where when a room hits below 68 degrees the valves will turn on and when a room hits 70 degrees it will turn off. But it takes awhile for the valves to turn on and get that warm air in the room. It also takes awhile for the valves to close.”
The specific climate control system that North has is something called HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning). HVAC systems heat or cool areas of the school by controlling valves that can block the air flow. These systems can save energy and money by only heating and cooling areas when needed.
Bladow said, “In a school this size you will always have some cold spots and warm spots. Everything runs off a set point. I place the set points accordingly as I get input from the teachers. If an area is always cold that is likely due to the set point and/or its proximity to an entrance/exit. Temperatures can start good in the morning but the body heat of a full classroom heats it up throughout the day. If the air outside isn’t cool enough and/or the chillers are not running, we have no way to cool the area other than trying to increase air flow.”
Do the changing seasons affect the temperature? Bladow said, “In the spring and fall it is common to need to run both the chillers and boilers, though that does not always happen.”
If you’d like to know how to help, Bladow said “Students talk to their teachers about their frustrations and the teachers email me and I can look at it and try to fix the problem. The easiest and most effective solution to being comfortable is to dress in layers so you can remove and add layers as needed for the environment.”
The temperatures of the building may fluctuate, but you can always have your teachers email Jermey Bladow or prepare to be in those kinds of conditions by wearing layers.