by Taylor Adams ‘27

From the very start of this school year, Sherwood has faced issues with heating and air conditioning not functioning well. In certain wings and rooms of the building, classes are either too hot or too cold and teachers have little to no control over the temperature in their rooms.

Having unpredictable and abnormal temperatures in a learning environment can become uncomfortable for students and teachers. It can become irritating when the temperature of any given room cannot be predicted, and they need to be prepared for hot and cold temperatures. It’s also distracting for students that are trying to learn. “When some students are very hot or cold, they focus on that discomfort and this makes them less available for focusing on learning,” said art teacher Nakeya Cook. Cook also noted that the extreme temperatures have been prevalent for most of the school year and have interfered with her ability to teach her best.

At the beginning of the year, maintenance workers from MCPS visited the school to attempt to solve AC issues when it was in the 90s and rooms felt like they were boiling. While these were resolved, they were not given permanent solutions, according to Principal Tim Britton. He explained that one section of the building is older than other areas and old pipes, vents, and AC units do not line up with the newer additions of the building.

Additionally, some issues with the boiler that have been only temporarily solved caused the school to be cold for all of November. Maintenance workers and technicians are working hard to find solutions to these problems and are at the school almost every day working on them. “There was a pipe that needed to be unblocked and replaced and when that happens, one of the boilers gets drained of water,” said Britton.

As rated by the MCPS Department of Facilities Management, Sherwood is in the lower half of schools for HVAC system quality. It has a system that can be modified, but it’s older and its unit ventilators and fan coils are at least 10 years old or older. “Based on the age of the school externally and internally, more needs to be done,” said Britton.