Bingham High school’s temperatures are very unpredictable and very obnoxious.

According to the history of Bingham by Scott Crump, The Bingham High School we attend now first opened its doors in 1975. That makes Bingham High School 44 years old, so it’s no surprise that things with the school’s interior are slowly starting to get uncomfortable.

There is the water, and so many other things that seem to be lurking around every corner at Bingham. One of the major concerns of miners everywhere, though, is the temperature. Some rooms are very cold, and make students feel like they have to layer up. Others classrooms are scorching hot, and sometimes the weird temperatures just depend on the day.

Last year, near the end of the year, the temperatures at Bingham were so out of the normal range that many students found it hard to focus and hard to show up; the air conditioning went out and made the heat unbearable, and they had to turn the cooling system off in order to fix the issue.  The problem has been fixed, but in many classrooms temperatures are still affecting students and even teachers.

The temperatures also have a huge impact on a student’s ability to do well in class. When it’s hot, students seem to participate less.

In an attempt to figure out why the temperatures are so weird, I talked with the head custodian, John Morgan. Morgan says, “[The temperature]  depends on what room and what part of the building you’re in…we have probably 200 rooms in this building, and so there [are] 200 moving parts on each one of those rooms, so there [are] a lot of things that could go wrong,”.

Keeping the temperature at Bingham controlled is a long, constant task. Morgan says, “We put work orders in, we get things fixed every day, we have workers here working on something. … It’s a tough situation, it’s a big building and it’s hard to make it hot, and then it’s hard to make it cold. It takes all day to do that… We do everything we can on a daily basis to keep everyone happy, and I think we’re getting there. They have fixed a ton of things in this building, and I’m happy with the progress.”

Morgan is always being proactive and looking for problems before they happen. He and his staff work incredibly hard to make sure the school runs and that everyone is comfortable.

“John and his staff do a really good job of dealing with the issues as they come…  they are being proactive as the weather changes. I’ve only been here three months and I’ve been really impressed with him and his staff taking care of the issues. It’s not always ideal for every teacher, but they’re really working hard to make sure it’s as comfortable as possible for all the teachers,” says vice principal Kenneth Damron.

So, even when the temperatures get too hot or too cold, just have a little patience. Bring a jacket or a sweatshirt and layer. Remember that Bingham is an old school and sometimes things don’t work right, but Morgan and his staff are working hard to make sure the school is at a comfortable temperature. It is a continuous process, and it does take time.