Hot or cold, one can’t tell because students prepare for diverse temperatures for every class. Custodian Bill Cockerham is the main person who works with the temperatures for the whole school with the building management system. 

The hardest time to adjust temperatures is in the fall and spring because the temperature outside begins to change. For the fall season, it is usually cold in the mornings but warm in the afternoons. However for spring, it is normally warm in the morning and cooler in the afternoons. 

Cockerham adjusts the temperatures around the beginning of November for colder weather. The hardest issue is communication with the teachers. Each room has their set point but that doesn’t mean the temperature will always be the set point. The temperature for a classroom can be affected by many factors including the number of students.

Band Teacher Daniel Eaton has talked to custodians about the temperature in his room. Students of his have complained about being cold. There are big windows in his room which can affect the temperature. Eaton shuts all the blinds for the weekends to keep the sunlight out. 

Band instruments will be affected by their pitch. The pitch will be higher when it is warmer. The pitch becomes flatter when it is colder like when they performed in the Christmas City of the North Parade. The engineers at the school do work with Eaton because his classroom is one of the largest and has the highest ceilings. 

“We wage a war in here against temperature,” Eaton said.

The thermostat for English teacher Kara Downs wasn’t reset at the beginning of the year. The air vents were 52 degrees air. She had tried messing with the thermostat which didn’t work. Downs eventually taped large sheets of paper to the vents of her room to prevent the cold air. However the air flow was strong enough to blow it right off. After her couple attempts, the custodian was called to fix the temperature. 

Normally at the start of the year in Downs classroom, the temperature would need fixing. In the morning it was colder since the heat was just turning on and in the afternoon it was much warmer. Downs owns a USB port fan and a space heater under her desk to use throughout the day. 

“I have actually adapted to the temperature,” Downs said. 

Senior Ely Hanson, an orchestra student who plays the viola, said the coldest rooms are on the third floor. The hotter rooms vary on the second floor along with the orchestra room especially with the air and humidity control. Instruments can crack because of being in the wrong temperature and it would be very costly. 

“If we had better vent control and the teachers could let the warm or cold air in from them at will then I think it would balance nicely,” Hanson said. 

Junior Natalie Mills thinks that her classes are fine and not too cold or hot. Classmates of hers have complained about temperatures in many classes. 

“Each room should have their own temperatures,” Mills said.