It’s the beginning of the school day, and students are heading inside. The sun’s merciless heat soaks through their skin, all while the air is sticky and humid– it makes them wince in discomfort. As they near the entrance, they dream about the glorious relief the cold AC will bring when they get to class.

 But the moment they cross through the doorway, they realize —with horror —the air is suffocating and moist. With the heat boxed inside the classroom, how could they bear to survive an entire class period?

Just around the beginning of the school year, students and staff noticed a major problem: the AC in the Math and English departments was broken. It was a challenge to stay focused while sitting in the sweltering summer heat; lectures became a jumble of words when students were too dizzy and exhausted. 

“It made the classroom uncomfortable for not only me, but for the students,” math teacher Alicia Jones said. “It could be a distraction when it’s super hot and humid in the room.”

Jones feels that the classroom’s condition made the air feel muggy. This was a hindrance during lectures because the environment affected the students’ moods and overall learning.

Students also voiced their complaints about the situation. Junior Ruby Jensen expressed how difficult it was to concentrate during lessons due to the high temperatures. 

“I think it harmed the learning environments because it made people more irritated and less focused while being hot,” Jensen said.

MN is approximately 45 years old. The school’s AC and heat come from rooftop units, or RTUs.

“The way that our AC and our heat are done is that there are rooftop units. Certain units impact certain classrooms,” principal Aaron Bearinger said. “You can have a unit that’s working just fine on the north side of the building, but the one on the south side is not working. They don’t interact with each other.”

The south wing of the school, particularly the second farthest hallways, is the most susceptible to breaking down.

“[The AC units] have been [a recurring problem] for the last three years, particularly at the start,” Bearinger said. “Any HVAC system is going to be like your own house. The older it is, the more issues you might have with it.”

Despite the challenges students and staff faced with the heat, they persevered. They overcame the difficulty in a multitude of ways, but still had their struggles.

“My teacher would put on fans when we were having work time, but otherwise he would have to turn the fans off so he could talk to students,” Jensen said. 

Initially, fans were used to cool down classrooms, or students were permitted to sit out in the hallway, where it wasn’t as uncomfortable. Later on, the school provided something for temporary relief.

“We’ve got portable AC units in there for each of the teachers, which helps out with not only cooling down the room, but also taking some of the humidity out of the room, which makes the rooms feel uncomfortable and stuffy,” Bearinger said.

For most, it was heaven. For others, the roaring of the machine in the middle of class was even more distracting. A few classes temporarily traveled to cooler classrooms for comfort.

“It was annoying bouncing around classrooms. For me, we went across the hallway, but some teachers were going to different parts of the building,” Jones said. 

With all the adjustments to routine, admin has tried to make the difficulties less stressful on students and staff by acclimating to what seemed like the new normal.

Thanks to the cooperation of students and staff, the initial chaos has been alleviated. Although the high temperature has subsided, the district is working to address the HVAC issues and resolve them as soon as possible. 

“I really do appreciate our teachers and our students in the resilience, flexibility, and adaptability that they’ve shown through [the issues],” Bearinger said.