A Fan and a Bucket of Ice

Temperatures climbed to a startling 105° F last Wednesday, and those severe temperatures over the past few weeks coupled with a lack of air conditioning at Billings Central have made it difficult for students and staff to keep cool. “It’s really hot, especially in the afternoons,” said Central sophomore Luke Pankratz. In fact, students at neighboring high school Billings West staged a walkout when faced with a similar situation in an effort to promote discussion about installing permanent cooling solutions around their school.

Unfortunately, Billings Central likely will not be getting air conditioning any time soon. “Our building is too old; it’s a concrete building,” said Central religion teacher Karla Kelly. “Ductwork in this building would not be cost effective at all.” To combat this problem and keep her classroom cool, Kelly currently employs a creative solution. On the southern wall of her classroom sits a hexagonal, wooden table with a chessboard drawn on its top. While quite elegant, this small table would be fairly unnoticeable upon first entering the room were it not for the enormous bucket of ice and an almost comically large fan resting upon it. “As the ice evaporates, it cools the air around it, and the fan blows the cool air into the room just like an air conditioner,” Kelly explained.

The inspiration for this innovative setup came from Kelly’s husband. “My husband used to teach here,” said Kelly. “We didn’t have air conditioning units, so he would run fans in front of the ice, because he taught physics.” Kelly’s husband no longer teaches at Central, and his cooling technique has been left unused until this year. Kelly revived it to combat the particularly brutal heat wave that Billings has faced in these past few weeks.

While Kelly admits that no one enjoys the heat, she hopes it will still have a positive impact on her students. “We don’t always have ideal working conditions. I think it builds character and I think it makes us tougher,” said Kelly.