Chilly School Won't Turn On Heat ( Soviet Style DeKalb County Schools)

wsbtv.com ^ | October 25, 2006

[wintertime]

Students and teachers at one DeKalb County school say the freezing temperatures we saw overnight made it awful chilly inside their classrooms. They can’t understand why the school system wouldn’t turn on the heat.

The school system says no matter how cold it gets, it’s their practice to turn the heat on in all schools on October 30.

A DeKalb County Schools spokesperson told Channel 2 that’s not entirely true. We found out the school district doesn’t turn on the heat system-wide until October 30. And once the heat is on for all schools – it stays on.

The school system did tell us that principals can petition to have their heat turned on before October 30. But if it warms up, the heat won’t be turned off – so many principals choose to wait.

[wintertime]

This sounds like the old Soviet Union! I know that this story took place in October, but it illustrates so well the toxic sclerosis so typical of our government schools.

If a school can't respond to something as simple as turning on a thermostat, how will it respond to something as complex as illiteracy?

Perhaps it isn't the thermostat that is complex, but the complex union rules that cover the specially assigned "Commrad of Thermostat Control". :-)

Just one more reason to homeschool. At least your child will not freeze from the cold, or bake half to death from too much heat. :)

What ineffectual idiots!

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

Posted on 01/01/2007

... turn the heat on in all schools on October 30.

Have I entered the twilight zone?

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Anecdote: one of the richest men in America (an acquaintence) does not allow his house to be heated. A self-made man, he wants his kids to know what it's like to be deprived of something.

Doesn't really have much to do with the article, of course...

[stylin19a]

they should have dropped the code words: "Child abuse"

[Graybeard58]

Illinois?

[Lurker]

Georgia.

L

[Thoeting]

I'm not seeing the connection 'tween literacy and maintanance or the purpose of posting an article 2 months after it happened.

[Pure Country]

When I taught school, I was in a little outer building that just housed the art room and myself. The door opened to the west and every time the door opened, it would freeze the room with a blast of frigid air and then we would be stuck because the superintendent had the thermostat locked in so that it wouldn't kick in until it reached about 55 on the thermostat. On top of that,the cold air was blocked from reaching the thermostat which was out of the way of the cold air.

"AHEM" However, I did notice that the old thermostat had a lip on it around the bottom of the thermostat, so being the creative teacher that I was...I kept a cup of snow in the room and kept feeding it into the thermostat cup. We had a very, very cozy room!

[LeGrande]

The schools aren't doing enough for global warming education. If enough students believe in Global warming then that will have to make it true :)

Seriously it probably takes a few days to heat up the school. It probably gets too warm if it isn't cold outside. My extremely efficient house takes over 8 hours to heat up in the winter. Set back thermostats and heating and cooling on demand (hourly) are not always the most efficient.

[Jean S]

I'm not seeing the connection 'tween literacy and maintanance or the purpose of posting an article 2 months after it happened.

This is interesting and there is no Free Republic rule about posting 2 month old articles.

School districts pay a fortune for teacher salaries, it doesn't surprise me that they can't afford to heat the school buildings.

[Huntress]

I bet the school district's administration building is exempt from this rule.

[Hoodat]

We found out the school district doesn’t turn on the heat system-wide until October 30.

Too bad they don't have a day assigned where they start educating the students system-wide. Dekalb County schools are deplorable. But then so is Dekalb County government.

[wintertime]

they should have dropped the code words: "Child abuse"

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Good point! I should have dropped the code word "child abuse" in my first post. Missed it. Sorry.

So...what would happen to a parent that deliberate froze a child by withholding heat? What would happen to a neighbor who imprisoned a child who was not his own in a cold house? Would the SS be at the door with armed police?

Well...as I have posted previously...Teachers and principals should be held to the SAME standards of child abuse that the ordinary citizen must account to. If the SS would be a neighbors door, then the SS and police should be knocking on a principal or teacher's door.

So....the children are freezing and teachers and principals just stood by and kept these children imprisoned in freezing conditions???? Did it occur to anyone of these so-called professionals to call the parents and send the children HOME, and/or immediately transport them to a warmer government building of some sort?

Huh?

[southernnorthcarolina]

Bah. These weenie kids today.

When I went to school, I walked. Through waist-high snowdrifts. Uphill. Both going to school and going home.

Heat? Oh, please. If we kids shoveled enough coal, maybe they'd burn a few lumps of it in the stove we'd huddle around on days when it got below zero. We never even thought about heat until the teacher's mug of coffee froze.

And did we complain? Of course not. We were grateful for the opportunity...

[org.whodat]

This is interesting and there is no Free Republic rule about posting 2 month old articles.

I agree with the posting. I lived in Ga for several years, never saw it freeze in Oct are get really cold for that matter

[kalee]

ping

[Rb ver. 2.0]

Get a grip. This was in Georgia the third week into October. The heat's been turned on and everyone is fine.

[LouD]

A lot of commercial buildings have similar policies. You can't just switch from AC to heat, and the engineering behind many HVAC systems is based on pre-cooling or pre-warming the air - It's the HVAC equivalent of steering an aircraft carrier: It doesn't turn on a dime. If you might have a cold day, followed by a warm day, you would have to spend money cooling the air you paid to heat the day before.

Incidentally, much of the heat in commercial buildings comes from computers, lights, and bodies - so I doubt it was unbearable. Put a sweater on the kids, and send them to school.

P.S. I'm willing to bet your unheated Georgia classroom is warmer than my heated Wisconsin house. ;)

[bannie]

send the children HOME,

BBBWWWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

[Buddy B]

History for Atlanta Dekalb, Georgia Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Daily Summary for October 25, 2006
Actual - Temperature:
Mean Temperature 44 °F / 6 °C
Max Temperature 55 °F / 12 °C
Min Temperature 32 °F / 0 °C