It’s no secret that most Staples students take their wardrobes very seriously.
Although the outfit selection process differs for each individual, there is one factor that all students must consider when picking out their clothes for the school day: the highly variable temperatures within the building.
Regardless of the weather outside, certain classrooms are either boiling or freezing year-round. There could be snow on the ground, but the field house will still be sweltering. And the cafeteria can be chilly even in the sunny days of June. So what’s a kid to wear?
The answer depends on where one is in the school. For example, anyone who takes a foreign language should bundle up for class with a warm vest or jacket, such as those army jackets Staples girls are so fond of. And if lugging a coat around doesn’t sound appealing, at least wear some sort of sweater.
“My Spanish room is always cold,” Caroline Gray ’17 said. “Sometimes I just shiver because I don’t have a jacket.”
Another notoriously frigid area of the school is the science hallway. Heat rises, but evidently not to the chemistry classrooms.
“It’s always freezing,” said Malin Hovstadius ’15, who takes three science classes.
Hovstadius added that one of her teachers once let the class take all of third lunch instead of lab lunch because it was so chilly.
“He thought it was too cold for us to suffer anymore,” Hovstadius said.
Chemistry teacher Maura Delaney explained that while many students complain about how chilly the science rooms are, the teachers who spend their whole day in the cold eventually get used to it, or at least know what to wear to stay warm.
“I wear a lot of layers, and I always have a jacket on the back of my chair,” Delaney said. “And if it’s really cold, I wear two pairs of socks.”
In an ideal world, students would come to science class dressed in winter coats and puffy parkas. Instead, throw on a light jacket or fuzzy North Face fleece, so you can study in style.
But don’t get too toasty. Students also have to account for the oppressive heat they are bound to encounter in classes such as gym and math.
Thanks to the sauna-like atmosphere of the field house, students begin to break a sweat before they even complete their first warm-up lap. To stay cool, stock up on moisture-wicking fabrics and short sleeves, avoid heavy materials, and invest in a locker-sized deodorant just in case.
Sydney Sussman ’15 believes that the key to staying comfortable in school is layering.
“The health rooms are always really cold, so I need to remember to bring a sweatshirt, especially for the long periods,” Sussman said. “In the math classroom, I recommend wearing short sleeves because the temperature change is so drastic.”
According to paraprofessional Chris Garrity although certain areas of the school have very distinct conditions, each individual has his or her own tolerance of the temperature.
“Some people don’t like the heat, so they’re hot, but other people don’t mind,” Garrity said. “It all depends. You have to layer.”
The climate at school spans more than four seasons, but students who stay on their (sock-covered) toes will make it through the days just fine.
