Oakland Mills Middle School sent its students home yesterday morning because the school had no heat after a boiler broke down.
School officials sent 480 students home about 9:30 a.m. so school system maintenance workers could fix the boiler, which broke down overnight. The school's temperature hovered around 50- to 56 degrees, but some areas were as cold as 45 degrees, school officials said.
"We asked the students to keep their coats on, gloves and hats as necessary," said Dan Michaels, the school's principal. "The students did a wonderful job, and the teachers did a really nice job under the circumstances, and they were difficult circumstances at best."
Oakland Mills is expected to open today for school.
Parents complain there are frequent heating and air conditioning problems at the school.
"We've never had to close the school before, but the maintenance men are there on a regular basis," said Ellen Hartranft, the school's PTA president. "In the past, the temperature ranged from 58 degrees to 88 degrees, between rooms and even within the same room."
School officials said Oakland Mills' heating and ventilation system was designed to serve an open space school, which has no walls between classrooms. Temperature variations became more of a problem after partitions were put up to enclose classrooms.
School officials have budgeted $1.6 million to replace the school's old mechanical equipment, but that's contingent on passage of the school system's proposed $49 million capital budget.