(New Bedford) -
At GLCPS, heat is a common topic among students, especially now that the weather is getting warmer.
With the opening of the new STEAM Center two years ago, a lot of us have started noticing the difference between the two GLCPS buildings even more. The newly renovated STEAM Center has individual heating and cooling units in each room, while the original building, the Main Campus, still uses an older steam heating system and no actual cooling. That means most classrooms in the main building rely on open windows or fans, which isn’t always enough when the temperatures rise.
For some students, the heat makes it hard to stay focused. Sophia Rodriguez, a 6th grader, said, “Sometimes I feel like I can’t focus on my work because of the heat. It’s even worse in the summer.” That same feeling is shared by many students from different grades. Ismael Terrero-Carvajal in 5th grade noted, “When I first started out at this school it wasn’t bad, however, as the summer’s approaching and the school year is ending, the heat is starting to bother me.” A big question a lot of students have is why hasn’t a cooling system been added to the original building? Joseph Coj Garcia, a 10th grader, pointed out, “I’m not really sure why there haven’t been any changes made when they just renovated a new building that has it.”
Mr. Furtado Jr., the executive director of GLCPS, offered some insight. He explained that adding a cooling system to the original building would be extremely expensive and complicated. It would involve major work around plumbing, lighting, and other infrastructure. On top of that, as a charter school, GLCPS doesn’t have access to funding from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), which helps other public schools cover construction costs. “Knowing the cost and starting plans to fund a project of that magnitude would be step one,” he explained.
There were advantages when building the STEAM Center. For one, it was unoccupied during construction. That made the process easier and quicker. Trying to do that kind of work in the original building, which is in constant use, would be much more difficult. Still, Mr. Furtado explained the importance of taking pride in our original building, “A lot of work goes into maintaining a building of this age, but students taking the time to pick up paper or wrappers on the floor and respecting the common areas is a great way every individual person could make a tangible difference in how the building feels and operates.”
While we wait and hope for future upgrades, students still have options to stay cool. Wearing lighter school uniform choices like gym shorts and t-shirts, using fans, or asking teachers to open windows can help on hot days. Even though the original building might not be perfect, taking care of what we do have and being proud of it can make a real difference.
Kyle Keough is a senior at GLCPS. As part of his senior internship program, he is writing news articles for and about the GLCPS community.
