Heating Woes Leaves Students Shivering

The return of frigid temperatures to the area has brought more than inconvenience to students and staff at the Patriot Academy. For several days, they have struggled with working in a space that has ranged from uncomfortable to cold due to heating issues at the Patriot Academy. With multiple classrooms without heat, administrators have moved in temporary space heaters in an effort to keep classrooms open and students on campus. Dr. Johnston, Director of Jefferson County Schools, became aware of the situation last week and made a trip to the campus of the Patriot Academy where he learned that temporary heaters were being unplugged in the evening and the room temperatures were plummeting overnight. He instructed the heaters to be left on until the heating unit is repaired and classroom temperatures have, with a few exceptions, stayed in the lower to mid sixties throughout the main part of the day. Early mornings are still a struggle for several classrooms but students in those classrooms are being moved to other parts of the building.

The Patriot Academy, one of the newest schools in Jefferson County, was completed in 2013. During construction the decision was made to use a new and more efficient heating system. The drawbacks to this system were the distance from the provider and issues with repair. To answer those issues, the Department of Education had a maintenance contract with the provider and Jefferson County employees were to be trained to repair the unit. As of date, Jefferson County no longer has a service agreement with the provider and the lone Jefferson County employee that was trained on the unit left the Department of Education in December, leaving the DOE with a serious gap in service. As of the time of press, there is no indication how long it will take to repair the unit at the Patriot Academy. Dr. Johnston has expressed his concern regarding the lack of service agreement and having no trained employee in house to address situations such as this when they arise.

As for the forecasted deep freeze that is expected to blanket the area, Dr. Johnston stated “ We are working on the situation and we know that it has not been ideal but we have been able to maintain use of most of the classrooms. There are some on going issues with maintenance of the unit that will also have to be addressed. Hopefully, an additional day without students will make the difference and if it does not then we will take each day as they come with the best interests of students and staff in mind.”