January 06, 2006

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Palo Alto Online

Temperatures drop, tempers rise at school

by Alexandria Rocha

To cut down on heating costs this winter, the Palo Alto school district locked its classroom thermostats at 65 to 70 degrees, causing some students to wear scarves, mittens and knit caps in classes and one teacher to call the district "cold by design."

"Sometimes I can't even focus because it's so freezing," said Annika Benitz, 17, a junior at Gunn High School who was wearing layers of clothing in class this week.

With the cost of utilities on the rise, school districts across California are using a thermostat lockdown as a way to save money during the year's coldest months. Many, like the Palo Alto Unified School District, have installed energy-management computers, which are housed in central offices and control all of the classrooms' temperatures. On-site staff and administrators have no power over a school's heating.

"The school has no ability to control temps in classrooms. We get what we are given," said Noreen Likins, principal of Gunn High School, which is one of the colder campuses because of its cement structures. "I have asked that this be reconsidered during cold spells, but I don't think anything has changed yet."

This winter, the range in Palo Alto's 17 kindergarten through 12th-grade public schools was set at 65 to 70 degrees. Most of the campuses use energy from the City of Palo Alto Utilities. Escondido and Nixon elementary schools are powered by Pacific Gas and Electric.

Bruce Lesch of Palo Alto Utilities said for every degree a thermostat is turned down, the user saves 2 percent on heating costs. Jerry Matranga, the district's business manager, did not know how much the district has saved by controlling the temperatures.

Meanwhile, during the coldest times last year, some teachers could not get their rooms' temperatures above 68 degrees.

"My students and I were freezing for the month of October, November and part of December," said one Gunn teacher, who did not want her name used.

After sending numerous e-mails to Likins, submitting two work orders and a petition -- initiated by one of her classes -- to the district, the teacher's classroom thermostat was adjusted to reach 72 degrees, although she can only get it up to 70.

"The situation still remains inequitable throughout my department and within the greater context of the school," the teacher said. "Although my classroom has been adjusted, there are still other classrooms of students and teachers who are still freezing and need relief in a timely manner."

After various complaints, Peter Pearne, the district's director of maintenance, said the thermostat range has now been raised to 68 to 74 degrees districtwide. However, he said some classes may still need to be updated.

The thermostats "were set too low, and it wasn't brought to my attention until we had the cold spell the first time," said Pearne, who has been with the district since August. "Seventy (degrees) is too cold."

Although the anonymous Gunn teacher encountered delays before getting help, Pearne said submitting work orders is still the best way to have cold classrooms adjusted.

Pearne said the district did not intend to make the classrooms uncomfortable. The thermostat lockdown, he said, was to act as a safety net when teachers forgot to turn the heat off at night or before the weekend.

The whole idea of regulating the temperature still does not sit well with some students.

"It's not a bad thing to be cold, but at school it is," said Rebecca Maldonado, 16, a Gunn junior.

Both Matranga and Pearne said the thermostat lockdown has become a popular measure schools everywhere are taking to save money on energy bills, especially in the era of tight budgets.

The Tribune-Democrat in Pennsylvania recently reported that officials with the Central Cambria School District in Ebensburg, Pa., have gone as far as to ask students to wear layers of clothing so officials can keep the thermostats at 70 degrees. There has also been talk among those district officials about lowering the temperatures to 68 degrees.

The thermostat lockdowns are occurring at the same time various studies are emerging about student performance and classroom environments. Some say student performance is affected by even the most moderate changes in room temperature.

According to a Cornell University study entitled "Ambient Environment: Thermal Conditions/Health and Performance," both warm and cool conditions "can make people feel drowsy."

A separate study conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2003 on school facilities reported that cold temperatures specifically reduced children's dexterity and speed.

"In general the need to avoid extreme conditions and to provide for as much individual temperature control as possible is strongly supported," the study concluded. endbullet>

Staff writer Alexandria Rocha can be e-mailed at arocha@paweekly.com

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