I thought Poly's was supposed to be a school for engineers? Hmmm......

I know City's heat is working just fine today...

It is getting colder here-- all heat that we had yesterday is now being replaced by cold air! Glad to see Scroggins is committed, because we're losing momentum with the students-- which was tough to restore following all of the days off we already had (Exams, MLK, Inaugural, etc.)-- just in time for Spring Break!!

By the way Sara, Poly-Western has no air conditioning, because the system is radiant components, not fan forced. AC we do have is (in some rooms) window air units.

WHAT'S NEW??? EVERYDAY IN THE CITY THERE'S A SCHOOL CLOSED BECAUSE OF HEATING, IT'S JUST NOT REPORTED EVERYDAY. IF OUR CITY OFFICIALS PAID MORE ATTENTION TO OUE SCHOOL, THEN HOW THERE GOING TO GET MORE MONEY OUT OF THE CITY FOR RAISES OR FOR GIFT CARDS. THEY RATHER TALK ABOUT SLOTS THAN SCHOOLS. 31 MURDERS, 2 DEATHS OF STUDENTS AT SCHOOL AND COUNTLESS ATTACKS THAT WILL NEVER BE REPORTED. THE CITY IS FULL OF THEIVES LEAD BY THE MAYOR.

Sara -
Any way that North Ave could provide a list of schools that have closed this year (and number of days) due to heat or water or some other type of long term maintenance problem? There seems to be a concept that every day there's a school closed, but I think it's more infrequent. They definately have announced closures of different schools on the radio, but I can't remember names or how often.

I have to agree with you parent, I don't think it's an every day affair. I think the campus is doing what is fair for the kids and the staff. Fix the boilers, or supply space heaters for each classroom. I called in a heat problem today and the Area office came in promptly, I don't want to feed the drama so I'm not going to write how well that worked out. The fact is, we all deserve an environment to work/learn in that isn't frigid.

A friend of mine (also a teacher) is always baffled by these types of problems. We know when school starts before the school year begins, we know when winter starts, we know when things are broken... why is it so hard to get things in working order *before* we get to this point?

I feel that the schools are suffering from age. There is a need to provide more funding to the schools to allow for the upgrade of older schools or the construction of new schools. We often complain and huff about the problems that go on in the schools, but we do not look at the simple things that can affect quality education such as functioning infrastructure. I know that many participating on this blog are Alonso groupies or non educators loving everything that he does but do not understand the magnitude of the series of problems that compound the problems in public schools. Spend a month in the school system dealing with the average students in the average school in Baltimore City and begin to make comments then. As far as Poly and City along with other citywide schools are concerned, it is important to inform everyone in the area of the problems because of the far reaching areas students travel.

Brandon:

If your friend has a billion dollars lying around, throw it at BCPSS facilities and most (not all) of the facility problems would be solved.

It was more than five years ago, I think, that the billion dollar price tag was put on city school building repairs. Probably higher now.

For decades, very little was done to maintain the hundreds of buildings. So now we're left with the remnants of indifference.

It's kind of like eating junk food for 20 years, recognizing that you're out of shape, and then wondering why it's so hard to lose weight when you start eating healthy and working out for a few weeks.

Unfortunately, not every problem can be anticipated, even when you plan ahead and make the repairs in advance.

Woodhome Elementary/Middle had a similar problem last year. As I understand it, the main unit for the heating system had to be replaced, and once that got done, the new system wasn't compatible with the old one, so the heating systems in each individual classroom began breaking down, almost in sequence. They'd fix one room and the next one down would have problems. It took weeks to get it straightened out and the kids wore their coats throughout the day.

Kudos to Ms. Skowrunski for keeping it together for the school despite losing what I'm sure was a lot of sleep chasing after the school engineers.

Hamiltonparent,

That's a good point, I know it's not realistic to fix everything in one shot. That being said, it's not unreasonable to expect each school building in the city to provide the basic utilities for children and staff. I can understand boiler failure as an isolated incident, but that's not the case. While I won't go as far to say a school a day is closing because of heat, I will say that several schools have heat problems... several schools translates to hundreds of students and staff who sit (like I am right now) in a cold room with coats, hats, and gloves on.

Today my room is frigid and my heater is blowing out cold air. We had this problem on Friday as well, and contacted the area office. They came down, pointed their little device in rooms, and told us our rooms were all 65-70 degrees, a standard thermometer placed those same rooms in the mid 50's (at the warmest).

I know we have money issues, I know we have old buildings, I know there are problems in BCPSS.. I've worked here long enough to relate. The fact is, no heat is unacceptable for zone schools, magnet schools, or charter schools. No child should have to sit in a freezing room for 45-90 minutes on end, and neither should the staff. It's not as if I'm looking for the day off, I'm just looking to not freeze at work.

As an update: Today we had some engineers in the building. I was informed (finally) that my heater is in fact broken and pulls in "too much cold air from outside". The upside, I assume now it will be fixed.. the downside until it is fixed my classroom is currently 48 Degrees (that's their reading, not mine).