Posted on 12/16/2005 11:40:33 AM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Bundle up, kids. It's getting cold inside.
As oil and natural gas prices soar, public schools are having to make some tough decisions: turning down the thermostat, finding alternative sources of fuel, even cutting back on the school week.
At Menomonie High School in western Wisconsin, principal Tom Wiatr has dropped the temperature a few degrees. Students started wearing zip-up sweatshirts and fleeces to stay warm, raising questions about a school rule against wearing jackets indoors.
So the school clarified its policy, even scheduling a fashion show to highlight acceptable clothing.
Naturally, it was snowed out.
So far, students are lukewarm to the school's strategy. The classroom temperature is 68 degrees.
"When we get into February, when we are below zero and the building takes longer to warm up, maybe then they will be a little more uncomfortable," Wiatr said of his students. "We just remind kids to dress appropriately. It is common sense that you just don't wear a tank top to school in February."
Schools are being socked with high fuel bills, whether it's diesel fuel to run their buses or heating oil or natural gas to keep buildings warm. Fuel prices have risen because of tight international supplies and reduced production in the hurricane-slammed Gulf Coast.
As schools lower the thermostats, they also encourage parents to make sure their children have a sweater handy.
"We have kids who go to school wearing shorts even in the wintertime, and the schools are making sure parents know their kids need extra clothing," said John Ellis, executive director of the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents. "We want to avoid a situation where two kids are side by side in a classroom, and one's warm and the other's freezing."
In Council, Idaho, the school district is switching this winter to a new heating system that uses extra wood from the surrounding Payette National Forest. "We believe that this will be the standard in many of the small towns in the Northwest, because there is so much potential fuel out there that is being wasted," said superintendent Murray Dalgleish.
At the Clayton Public Schools in rural southern New Jersey, reducing the temperature in class is more than a cost-cutting tool. It's also a learning tool, argues Kathy Latshaw, secretary to the school system's superintendent.
"For the little ones, it's teaching them about hot and cold," she said. "And in the upper grades, they're able to learn about the cost of things."
Even the cost of brewing a cup of coffee on campus is going up.
In St. Paul, Minn., the school district has come up with a $25-per-appliance annual fee as one in a series of steps to recoup utility costs. That means teachers have to pay to plug in their coffee makers, microwaves and refrigerators in classrooms and offices.
At the Summerfield High School in Louisiana's Claiborne Parish, the sprinklers for the ball fields have been shut off, as have the few lights that used to be kept on after hours.
In western North Dakota, the Killdeer School District is considering going to a four-day school week, triggered in part by higher fuel costs.
With the coldest months ahead, school business officers are worried most about heating their buildings. Rising fuel costs seem to affect the price of just about everything, they say, from furniture and deliveries to construction material and even garbage bags.
Simply budgeting more money to cover heating costs is more difficult than it sounds, said Anne Miller, executive director of the Association of School Business Officials International.
Schools sometimes gamble, lulled by mild winters and lower heating bills. They set aside less for heating and more for salaries or supplies. When a cold winter or an energy crisis comes, they may have to cut expenses from the class. Or just keep those classes colder.
"Cutting something from the instructional side isn't something that anyone wants to anticipate," Miller said. "It's more a case of, we'll deal with that when we get here."
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Associated Press writers Robert Imrie, Brian Bakst, Blake Nicholson, Carolyn Thompson, Chris Newmarker, Stacey Plaisance, Anne Wallace Allen and Rick Callahan contributed to this story from around the country.
On The Net:
Association of School Business Officials International: http://asbointl.org/index.asp
Actually, our school (in MA) overspent the budget by a million dollars. And turnout in school board elections were usually low so this time the school board said, hey let's ask for more money.
On the ballot were three measures and to vote no, you had to vote no on all three.
First was to increase budget by 1.6 million by raising taxes
Next was 1.2 million
Last was 900K
Turnout was huge. All three measures were crushed. And the school board administrator whose brilliant idea this was got kicked out and was replaced by an unknown.
I have hope.
Same here... though I might bump it up a degree every now and then, depending on outside weather conditions.
68 degrees? What's the problem. I keep my house at 65 degrees in the daytime, and 55 at night. Saves lots of money.
I can't sit around in a t-shirt but, gosh, how much trouble is it to put on a real shirt.
I watch the kids walk by my house every morning to go to school. The middle school girls are wearing only very lightweight jackets...even when it's around 0 degrees. I guess a real parka would make them look fat or something.
My advice to kids at this school: It's called a sweater. Look into it.
This is slightly off the subject: My 84 year old mother enjoys cooking out her household staff by insisting that the thermostat be set at 85 degrees summer and winter. Whenever my sister or I are at the house we reset it to a reasonable 72 degrees.
lol.. I hear ya.
I'm hot blooded myself, I wear shorts and t-shirts or t-tops year round, occasionally with a flannel or jacket if it is really windy or nasty out. I live in the San Jose Bay Area tho too.
I grew up in cold country , Minnesota, attended a country school that occasionally had a oil burning furnace that didn't always function well in the winter.
My wife and family are all Hawaii filips so we have a battle over the thermostat at night,usually set in the low to mid 60s.. I am burning a lot of wood this winter, it helps, and ma-in-law and the cats like it just fine.
I do feel bad for the kids tho, once again , they are asked to pay for the neglect and wanton reckless policies of enviro wackjobs, but what else is new?
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Sissy. I keep mine at 62 to 64. :)
Yes, and not only sll that, but since I was under 16, I had to wear Knickerbockers and short sleeves, no gloves, and a propeller beanie, too!
Only if you habitually just wear underwear...or less.
"I'm melting!"
65 Alive!
Being cool encourages activity to maintian comfort; being warm encourages ennui and napping at the desk. You aren't paid to be comfortable while not producing. Don't like it? Put something on, and get cracking! Hup, hup, hup!
Growing up in the 1950's, classroom "room temperature" was considered to be 65 degrees F. No one ever thought to complain. I don't actually recall when the utility companies spread the idea that room temp was 72. Sometime in the 60's I guess.
For seven years, starting in 1950, I attended an old school which had a potbelly coal burning stove in each classroom. It would not be fired up until we arrived at school in the morning. I was in South Carolina but there were still mornings when the temperature was in the teens when we walked into a room that had not been heated all night. We would huddle around the stove until the room warmed up. In the warmer months there was no air conditioning, not even a fan. I went through high school in a building with steam heat which was wonderful in the winter but there was still no way to cool it. There were days in September at the start of the school year when it was in the high nineties and on rare occasions hit 100 with high humidity. All that was just part of life fifty years ago.
Uphill both ways!!!
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