Bitterly cold temperatures in the Golden Triangle are making it difficult for some area schools to keep classrooms warm.
A malfunction with New Hope Elementary’s boiler system left rooms cold Tuesday, prompting the need for space heaters to provide supplemental heat for a few classrooms, Lowndes County School District Superintendent Sam Allison told The Dispatch.
“There were lots of calls from people that were concerned, and we just assured them that we were going to do what was necessary to have a good learning environment,” he said. “We wouldn’t put kids in a classroom without heat.”
Allison said there is heat throughout the elementary school buildings, but some classrooms weren’t reaching the desired temperature. Ideally, he said, that falls somewhere between 68 and 72 degrees.
“Our classrooms were heating up to about 60 to 65 degrees, so we were adding portable heaters,” he said. “Sixty-two degrees is bearable, but it’s not where we want it, and it’s not every classroom in that building. … If they come into a classroom at 62 degrees, and we have to put a heater there, sure that’s what we’ll do.”
These sorts of issues often come with cold weather, especially when you compare Lowndes County to a place more accustomed to freezing temperatures, Allison said. For example, mechanics are on hand during winter mornings to help out in the case a bus struggles to crank in the cold, he said.
At Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, Coordinator for Public Relations Caleb Youngblood said students are returning today after attending virtual classes for two days due to heating challenges.
“We let our students stay at home since they were already there for (Martin Luther King Jr. Day),” he said. “Since the roads were dangerous in some areas, we didn’t want kids driving in it.”
Youngblood said heating concerns affected both the boys and girls’ dormitory building and the Hooper Academic Building. The HVAC system in Hooper has had issues and is slated to be replaced by the spring, he said.
“As for the dorms, it’s just an older building,” he said. “We had some areas that were reading cold temperatures, so we’re going to look into what we can do about fixing those problem areas.”
Columbus Municipal School District Public Information Officer Nikki Pringle said the district hasn’t had any major disruptions due to heating problems. The district recently replaced several HVAC systems using Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund money.
However, she said students needed to be relocated from two classrooms, one at Franklin Academy and the other at Cook Elementary, due to the classroom heaters not working properly.
Haley Montgomery, communications director for Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District, told The Dispatch no administrators have reported heating problems or outages at any campus.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
