Centennial High School, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year, has been in need of major renovations for a long time. The building looks like it belongs back in 1977 when it first opened, and as the last major addition was in 2011, that should come as no surprise. Its dreary appearance and lack of windows has become a joke among students, with some saying that it resembles a prison more than a school. 

However, Centennial’s issues run deeper than its external appearance. For years, students and staff alike have been dealing with overcrowding, faulty HVAC systems, and outdated facilities. For years CHS has been trying to bring attention to its urgent need for renovations, but with little success. The next major renovation is not scheduled until 2036.

On the week of June 8, these issues escalated to the point that they became impossible to ignore. That Monday, first period was interrupted by an announcement on the intercom: school would be ending early at 10 am, due to the chiller system failing. 

The chiller is part of a building’s HVAC system, its function comparable to that of a furnace in a standard home. According to Centennial’s Day Chief of Custodial Services Allen Anderson, Centennial still operates with the original units from 50 years ago, even though they are designed to be replaced every 20-25 years. 

Anderson explained what caused the chiller to stop functioning properly.

“It’s not a modern-day unit, so what happens is the chiller just consistently runs and runs and runs, and [does] not circulate itself off, reset, and then come back on.” 

Since the chiller was constantly being overworked, it began to wear down until on Monday, it was not working at all.

“There’s no reviving it,” Anderson said.

The building had been struggling with regulating its temperatures the whole year. Sophomore Sana Hopanna described what the environment has been like at Centennial. 

“I felt like [it] has been really unpredictable and affected my learning,” she said, “because sometimes I would go to one classroom and it would be really, really hot, and then I’d go straight to another classroom and it would be really, really cold, and I couldn’t really focus on what I was doing because of how cold or how warm I was.”

Math teacher Teri Stevens similarly recognized how an uncomfortable environment can affect student learning. 

“My room is really hot, and that makes it hard because I like for kids to get up and move around and do things,” Stevens reflected. “And when they come in here and it’s so hot, they don’t want to do anything.”

Extreme temperatures at Centennial are not unique to June 11, but the chiller breaking was the final straw.

“We’ve had some rooms reach 92 degrees,” Anderson reported. According to Anderson, anything over 74 degrees is officially considered as an unsuitable environment for learning.

Due to these higher temperatures, the Central Office made the decision to close Centennial for the rest of Monday and for the entirety of Tuesday. 

As final exams and the end of school draws near, the timing could not have been worse for teachers who were already cramming in last-minute content. 

The county worked hard to find a temporary solution, and school was ready to reopen on Wednesday. Students that morning arrived to find a new addition to the drop off lane: a large box emitting a loud humming sound.

This chiller is being rented as a temporary solution, and will likely continue to be rented until the end of the school year. According to a Board of Education meeting on June 11, if the chiller is rented until October, it will cost an estimated $85,000. 

Zoey Cipriano, a sophomore, described the experience. “The whole thing was kinda crazy, because the temperatures in the school have been way worse, but I’ll take the extra days off. The temporary chiller was a bit weird though, and it didn’t really work. Government was freezing and Dance was 80 degrees.”

The plan is to eventually get a brand new chiller, but due to the age of the building, it is difficult to find a unit that fits the current layout.

“The issue with the design that we have now is that they have to find a single 400 ton chiller,” Anderson said. 

Most manufacturers provide 200-ton chillers that can be installed as a pair to increase efficiency. “[I]f we go with two separate 200-tons, there would have to be some reconfiguration in the mechanical group,” Anderson continued.

In other words, these replacements will be no easy task. 

As if things were not chaotic enough, the condenser unit got clogged, causing water to leak into the Social Studies storage room. Luckily the problem was spotted early and nothing was damaged, but owing to the humidity of the summer days, rooms now have to be checked daily for mold.

The HVAC system is just one of the many battles being fought at Centennial. Bathrooms—still the originals from 1977—-are in dire need of updates. The building is incapable of holding its more than 1300 students, necessitating five portables. The lack of a secure vestibule means the school does not have adequate security. Mice are so common they are given names like classroom pets. The stadium is only accessed by a steep hill, and Centennial is the only high school in Howard County that does not have an actual bathroom at their stadium. 

Instead of bathrooms, porta potties are stationed at the track, which pose both health and accessibility concerns.

The renovation date for CHS has been pushed back time and time again, a reflection of the tight budget allocated for Capital Improvements. Even though Howard is one of the wealthiest counties in the nation, funding for public schools is lacking.

In fact, funding is so limited that schools compete against each other for the earliest renovation dates, outlining why their concerns are more urgent than others. These debates, such as ones between Oakland Mills and Centennial, can get heated. 

Teachers, students, and staff should not have to beg to have quality facilities that meet basic needs, and they certainly should not have to bring down other schools in the process.

All students deserve to learn to their highest potential. That is why a comfortable school environment is essential.

“The job of a student is to focus on learning,” Centennial’s Principal Dr. Joelle Miller said. “That should be their only job. It’s my job as the principal to ensure that they can focus on nothing else, except for learning. So when we’re hot in one room, cold in another room, or if facilities aren’t working properly, that’s going to interfere with their learning. And I don’t feel like I’m doing my job as the principal when that happens.”

As the plans currently stand, Centennial will not be renovated for another ten years. But these recent events prove that the building simply will not last that long. Its patience has run out, and so has the patience of the students and staff who rely on it.