On Tuesday, April 14, 2026, South Brunswick experienced a heatwave in the middle of the relatively chilly April season. This heatwave brought temperatures of over 80 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the second half of the week, but the AC remained inactive at the high school, causing hallway and classroom temperatures to rise into the 80 degree range. And to make things worse, South Brunswick’s water supply turned out to be contaminated due to two broken water mains, which led to a Boil Water alert and forced the school to close off all of its water fountains.
So, how has the building been coping with the issue of extreme heat and no water to cool down with?
The Administration’s Response
The heat has not gone unnoticed by administrators. In an interview with Assistant Principal Mr. Jeffrey Rumen, he explained the process surrounding the AC and why it hasn’t been turned on.
“The air conditioner gets turned on somewhere around April 15th. Our system in the school is a system where the heat and air conditioning can’t run at the same time. So, unlike your houses, where you have central air and you can flip back and forth between them, our system is not made that way. It has to either be set up for heat or set up for air.”
This partially explains why the heat has continued for so long in the school. However, it doesn’t explain everything. After all, April 15 has already passed, and the transition time to go from heating to AC is one day. So, why is it that, on April 17, students are still suffering from the unrelenting heat? Mr. Rumen explained that as well.
“So, in switching the system to be set up for air conditioning, in starting that process, there were some issues discovered with the system that needed to be repaired. And that’s really what the delay is at this point.”
The issue goes much further than just the ability of SBHS’s staff to control, and the expensive and complex system is currently being worked on by the district’s administration and custodial staff.
Rescheduling the Pep Rally
Another huge aspect of the heat and water situation was the postponement of the Pep Rally, which was originally scheduled for today but has now been pushed back to April 24. When we talked to Activities Coordinator Mrs. Lauren Morris, we learned that Student Council and Activities seemed to be handling the situation fairly well.
Mrs. Morris said, “I would say everything is pretty much handled already. All of the communication went out to parents, staff, students, and parents to notify them of the change. We’ve already reached out to our vendor, so the DJ, the photographer. We also reached out to the coaches and the participants. I mean, I’m excited because we got a bonus spirit day, there’s a silver lining.”
Since news about postponing came out only yesterday, April 16, most preparatory work was already complete, with only very minor changes required. This included swapping the Color Wars spirit day to next week’s new Pep Rally date.
Mrs. Morris said, “I’m excited because we got a bonus spirit day. That was the only change, as we switched from being class color to black and gold, so that it still goes with the Pep Rally, trying to keep that theme, class versus class.”
Teachers and Students Surviving the Heat
Up the stairs from the Activities office, in the Annex, Mrs. Rebecca Bufis teaches art, where she and her students are preparing for the upcoming Joanne Kerekes Student Art Gallery on Wednesday, April 22.
Mrs. Bufis stated, “I’ve been running the kiln to get stuff ready for the art show. So it has significantly raised the temperature in here. I can’t open windows, and I’ve asked to open them, but nobody has returned my asks. I didn’t want to go against policy and do it myself, so I went through the proper channels, but I haven’t heard back.”
On the contrary, Physical Education classes seem not to be as deeply affected, or rather, inconvenienced. PE Teacher Mrs. Heidi Henning said, “The gym has been okay because we can just leave the doors open, and there’s some airflow that goes through, and I think it’s actually better on the first floor than the higher floors.”
Talking about how the water boil alert has worked in tandem with the hotter temperatures, Mrs. Henning said it could be a learning lesson for some kids to be better prepared, “I think that that definitely stinks. But, it’s a good learning lesson for kids. You need to bring your own water, you know?”
Students and teachers alike are frustrated by the rise in temperature inside the building, as well as the delay in getting info back about potential temporary fixes, but that isn’t to say that the administration is not trying to get the situation resolved for the sake of students’ comfort. While the email from Principal Mr. Peter Varela updated staff and students about the situation, it is important to clarify that there are already efforts underway toward fixing the central air, so the heat build-up in SBHS is not for lack of trying.
Students are clearly frustrated with these delays, and while they have received perfectly reasonable explanations, it is still clear that people are exceedingly unhappy. To see how students and teachers felt about this, we went into classrooms packed with kids fanning themselves with self-folded paper fans (which, by the way, actually create more heat than they cool you down) and interviewed some of them.
Mariah Freeman (’28) says not being able to use the elevator and having to go up the stairs is really difficult as someone suffering from asthma, as does going outside for gym, especially when there’s no water to cool down with.
Sierra Nelson (’27), a member of the Pirandello Players, says rehearsals for the musical are unbearable, as the actors have to roast beneath the blazing stage lights in the auditorium from 2:30 to 9:00 PM every day.
English teacher Mr. Andre Halaw said, “Everybody is sluggish, lethargic. Which makes sense—if you’re too hot, you can’t concentrate. It’s a bad experience.” In addition, Mr. Halaw mentioned students sticking to their desks because of the humid and perspiring classroom environment. He sympathized with the always fully dressed and covered Hijabi students, making cooling off much harder, but impressively never complaining about it.
Physics teacher Mr. Alexander Rosenwald, while acknowledging that the administration has been working to fix the issue, joked about the heat: “I’m not a fan.”
Due to the extreme heat, classes are also being moved to the library—especially classes on the third floor, where it is much hotter than the lower floors. We headed down to the library to ask about the effects of the heat down there.
We spoke to Librarian Mrs. Lisa Manganello, who is regulating the influx of students. She said, “So it actually kind of encourages people to collaborate and cooperate because we’re all in this together. So that’s actually kind of good for us.”
While people like the librarian are finding comfort in the heat situation, others, especially those on the third floor, were not so happy. Ms. Stefanie Marchetti said, “I feel like the last three days should have been half days for the safety and well being of the students and staff in the school.”
This April has been hotter than others on record and the combination of no water and a broken A.C. is making the situation worse for students and staff. Heat that rises is making corners of the school on the third floor extremely hot. “So my classroom, C310, is in the corner,” Marchetti added. “There are no windows, and it gets extremely hot in there, besides the fact that it’s a smaller classroom filled with 30 students.”
Fortunately, the Township lifted the Boil Water alert this afternoon and the forecast shows a drop in temperature for next week, so SBHS students and staff can put away their fans, return to the water fountains and look ahead to cooler days.
