Hinsdale High School Teachers Association

More than thirty current and former HHSTA-Central members turned out this past Saturday morning, many before dawn, to flip pancakes at this year’s pancake breakfast. Teachers from every department were on hand manning the grill, mixing the batter, serving drinks, and busing tables. Hall of Fame inductee Dick Flescher took lessons from cooking teacher Liz Perlini which provided a show worth the price of admission to those in line for their pancakes. Gina Gagliano, a math teacher, took great pride in her ability to pour perfectly round pancakes. Guidance counselor Joe Prieto stoked the grill and looked good in his chef’s hat. Latin teacher Alisha McCloud gathered tickets and greeted the arriving masses. There were many more I’m leaving out right now, but all were very busy to say the least. I primarily ran back and forth between three grills gathering pancakes for our waiting customers - most of which I swiped from Corky:

In the morning shift which I worked, people were in line waiting out the door of the cafeteria from pretty much 8:00am until the homecoming parade started around 10:00am. According to one of our retired members, John Duffy:

What a fantastic day. Thanks for inviting me and congratulations on the outstanding organization. It looked like a turnout larger than I can recall.  Certainly, the first shift was much larger than usual.

Later I caught up with Kristen Bronke, who with Dawn Oler as co-chair, organized the event. The purpose of the pancake breakfast is to raise funds for the HHSTA-Central Scholarship fund. Last year HHSTA-Central provided seven scholarships to students entering the teaching profession or a vocational pursuit. According to Kristen HHSTA raised over $2,700 at the door yesterday alone. Couple this with the nearly $2,500 in advanced ticket sales from Central teachers, and the event will have grossed over $5,200 for our scholarship fund.

Congratulations to the organizers, and thanks to all of those who participated in their association!

You can feel the excitement in the air as we prepare for Homecoming.  Students and teachers are dressing up and celebrating Hinsdale Central with pride.  It also means that it is time for the Pancake Breakfast, taking place this Saturday, October 11^th, from 7:30am to 12pm.  Come help your fellow teachers flip pancakes before the parade and games.  Tickets can be purchased in advance from teachers for a price of $5.50; tickets are $6 at the door. Proceeds from the Pancake Breakfast benefit the Hinsdale Central Teachers Association Scholarship Fund.   Come join us and be part of this tradition.  The sign up sheet is available in the mailroom.  Even if you can’t be here for the breakfast, be sure to sell those tickets! Thanks and hope to see you there!! 

The following was written by John Naisbitt, one of our Social Studies at Hinsdale Central who teaches in the “west wing” of the building. As many parents noted during open house at the end of August, the temperature and humidity in the building can be oppressive - even at night. What is equally important to realize, as John points out, is that this impacts learning, not just comfort. It is also important to note that this is not just a “hot day” issue, but occurs on days where the temperture is comfortable outside.

During August and September and again in May and June the conditions in many classrooms in Hinsdale Central are unbearable.  The heat and humidity can reach unhealthy levels and stay that way for days and weeks.  The learning environment is compromised as students and faculty suffer under sauna-like conditions.

On days that the outside temperature is in the 90s it can reach 100 degrees in the classroom with high levels of humidity and the only air movement is generated by fans.  The fans produce little relief and serve only to move hot air and make it hard to engage students.  Communication between the teacher and student is very difficult when three fans are going.  When the outside temperature is in the 80s the classrooms settle in at 90+ degrees.  Learning is made difficult as students complain about the heat and seem fatigued and lethargic.  They dread coming into non- air conditioned classrooms.  Many students are visibly sweating and often ask to get water.  The conditions disrupt the learning in the classroom.

Critically, on days that the outside temperature is comfortably in the 70s our classrooms can still easily reach 84-86 degrees.  Even with the windows open we struggle to generate any breeze in many parts of the building.

Last week when the temperature was in the 60s — many classrooms struggled to get the interior temperature below 80.  Coupled with the humidity levels the heat in many rooms impacts learning for up to 15 weeks a year.  This is NOT just a problem on hot days.  It is a problem throughout the late summer, early fall and spring.  Residual heat keeps the temperature in many rooms in the 80s and 90s for most of the first and fourth quarter.  These are not approximations– these reflect data collected from interior digital temperature gauges.

Students and faculty at Hinsdale Central deserve better.  We learn and teach despite the difficult learning conditions because we are committed.  We learn and teach despite the unhealthy learning environment. It is time that the District 86 Administration and School Board show that they too are committed to creating an acceptable learning environment for students and faculty at Hinsdale Central.

John Naisbitt
Social Studies, Hinsdale Central