Students and staff at Turpin High School were greeted with below-60 degree temperatures inside their school building on Thursday.
In a 7 a.m. message to district families, the district’s operations department said that the school “dipped overnight to lower than normal temperatures.” Staff noticed first when they arrived to work Thursday morning, while a cold weather advisory was in effect across the region. Thursday morning’s forecast included cold wind chills below 0 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
Weather: Cincinnati under winter storm watch Friday; 3 to 5 inches of snow possible
“The issue has been resolved and the heating system is now working normally, however, temperatures in the building will likely be in the 50s or low 60s inside when students arrive at school today,” the letter to families reads. “The temperature in the school should increase gradually throughout the day until it reaches normal temperatures.”
Students were advised to come prepared for the cold.
“It is a good idea to bring a sweatshirt or light jacket to the building today,” the message reads.
But classes start at 8 a.m., so some students were already on their way to school when the message went out. Josh Bazan, the district’s spokesperson, said no students were already at the building when the notice was sent.
‘There is no concern,’ district says
Sandi Warner’s son was one of those students. He left for his bus stop a little before 7 a.m., she said, since his pickup time is 7:05. Warner got the district’s notification at 7:01, after her son had already left. The text did not go directly to her son.
“At least he had pants on. He’s not a shorts in the winter kid,” Warner said. He wore a winter coat but no hat or gloves.
“I really wish they would have at least called a two-hour delay when they realized it wasn’t working. Even if they were able to fix it,” Warner said. That way, administrators could have allowed the building some time to warm up.
The district’s maintenance team worked quickly to address the issue Thursday morning. The building does not get above the low 70s normally, Bazan said, and the building reached normal temperatures within a couple of hours. He said there was no concern that temperatures would go back down during the day, “let alone reach unsafe levels.”
The district has a no cellphone policy, so Warner said it took a while for her son to get back to her to let her know how he was doing Thursday morning. He said he wasn’t cold, but that the school’s basement − where he takes a ceramics class − was still pretty chilly.
“The heating is working and there is no concern,” Bazan said. “We notified families so they were aware that the early parts of today would be slightly colder than normal.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Forest Hills school colder than usual as heating system malfunctions