Remember those lovely days back at the middle school when walking into school was a blast of cool air, not like being hit by the firey breath of a dragon? Perhaps that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but the glory days of air conditioning were behind the students of Hastings High. Until now.
Rumors of the glorious day when we would all be shivering in our seats when school began in August have been circulating for years, but it is finally happening.
“We’ve been talking about it for over five years, but we just didn’t have the funding in place until last year,” said administrator Trent Kelly. What was the thing that turned the tables for this year?
“Well, the government offered low and no interest bonds that were too good of an option to pass up,” said Kelly. With phase one- air conditioning the gym- already complete, it’s on to the next step. By the start of fall, they’d like to have the new science wing due to be finished, but students will have to wait one more year for the whole building to be finished.
That’s right seniors, it looks like we’ll never get to walk the halls of Hastings High and get the shivers. There is a bright side to the searing summer heat though.
“I’m not too happy I’m missing out on it, and I wish they’d have it done, but so far it hasn’t been too bad- I think the one o’clock outs are a fair trade,” said senior Brooke Jasch.
“We had to do it in phases so it could be heated and in use,” Kelly explained. It’s difficult to work while school is in session because there’s always some sort of hubbub going on even after school hours. Even though it’s an ongoing process, most students, and teachers, agree that its been worth the wait.
Social Studies teacher Robert Kerr is among one of the most grateful for the upcoming air conditioning. His room, which of all the rooms in the school has been student voted the most toasty, can definitely be described with the firey dragon breath metaphor.
“I wholeheartedly agree that my room is among the hottest in the school. The minute that sun comes up it starts heating up in here and as the day goes on it just keeps getting worse,” said Kerr.
Kerr has a lot of history (no pun intended) in this room. He has been in it since he first started his career here at Hastings High in August of 1986, so needless to say, he’s been waiting for this day for a long while.
