At Lake Oswego High School, temperature has been a hot topic lately. With the aggressive arrival of fall weather, students have been constantly complaining about the school being too cold. 

“The temperature seems to vary a lot from hall to hall and classroom to classroom” said senior Doris Yang. “And even within the same classroom on different days it can be significantly different temperature wise.”

These varying temperatures can also have an impact on students’ classroom experience. “It can be distracting sometimes if a particular classroom is really cold. I just keep thinking about how cold I am instead of focusing on the material we are learning in class” said Yang.

Junior Ellie Tanimura shared the same sentiments in regard to the different floors. “In the science classrooms, it’s so cold. And taking a test is horrible.”

If the school is so cold, why can’t we just turn up the temperature? Building Engineer Jerome Kruse explained how the heating system here works. “We have five hot water boilers that heat our school [that operate under one system]. The gym operates under the same system” said Kruse. These boilers regulate the temperature of the air travelling from room to room in relation to the temperature outdoors and the preference of the teacher.

In terms of day to day temperature, Kruse is in control of that as well. “ I set the temperature between 68 to 72 degrees throughout the whole building depending on what the teachers want” stated Kruse. 

While the general temperature of the school remains constant there is some disparity between each classroom.