So far the 2015-2016 school year at Winter Springs High School has been off to a fantastic start. From our nationally-ranked varsity girls volleyball team to the beginnings of our International Baccalaureate program, WSHS is continuing to excel in all facets. However, something less desirable has also been prominent these first few weeks: our broken air conditioning system.

Classrooms all across the campus, house boiling bears trying to make the best of our tropical situation. Students and teachers have started to get creative with how they handle this sweltering seminary: fans big and small have been placed strategically around rooms, students have begun wearing expertly planned outfits that abide by dress code but also allow for maximum ventilation, and some have admitted defeat by simply bringing a towel with them to wipe off excess sweat.

This AC Armageddon is hardly unexpected, since WSHS has had the same cooling unit since its doors opened in 1997. That is 18 years of tireless work for one enormous system with few repairs over time. Most units have a life expectancy of roughly a decade, so really we should be commending our monstrous moderating machine for lasting as long as it did. Administration has put in multiple repair requests to the county before, but other issues took precedence. In addition to the long waiting list, our AC is so special because almost none of its parts are easily replaced.

“No one else in the district has a system like ours, they really didn’t put them in at the other schools. At the time it was the newfangled thing, but it didn’t work that great, so it is very difficult to repair because it is a system that nobody uses anymore,” said Principal Dr. Mickey Reynolds.

But our salvation has finally arrived in the form of a county-hired repair team! Work began on the large coolers outside of the cafeteria the third week of September, and a much appreciated temperature shift can already be felt in some classrooms. But the reconstruction process will not be a quick one, unfortunately. The technicians must check every room in every hallway of every building in order to recreate our AC system, but when all is finished it will be well worth the wait!

“They are putting in a whole new system of controls, something that could even be controlled remotely which we didn’t have the capacity to do before,” added Reynolds.

Bear Nation can anticipate a full recovery by the end of fall, just in time for us to heat up again in preparation for the inevitable winter chill.