Too hot for school?
Complete coverage of the Philadelphia School District by the Philadelphia Inquirer's Kristen Graham.
Too hot for school?
Kristen Graham
With temperatures expected to hover around 80 degrees at midday, Monday is far from the hottest June day the region has seen.
But all Philadelphia School District schools are closing at noon, a move that has some scratching their heads.
"The decision was based on the weather forecast," spokesman Fernando Gallard said - weather forecasts officials looked at on Sunday called for a high of 85, with high humidity.
A district press release issued on Sunday said that "temperatures are expected to soar to the upper 90's tomorrow in Philadelphia." Gallard said that was an error.
"The majority of our buildings are not air conditioned, and they do retain heat. It is our experience that if you have two hot days where you don't have the opportunity to air the buildings out, that builds up to having a very hot day on a Monday," Gallard said. "We made a decision, and we move forward with it."
Students' final day of class is Thursday. Many high school and eighth grade graduations are scheduled for this week, but Gallard said he knew of only one scheduled for today - Lincoln High's. That will continue as scheduled, he said - Lincoln is a new building and is air conditioned.
Gallard said that cost was no consideration in the decision to close. The district is in a dire fiscal situation, with a $218 million budget shortfall for 2012-13 that it must finance through borrowing that comes on top of more than $700 million in cuts made this 2011-12 school year. But "cost is not a consideration at all," Gallard said.
Make no mistake - the district's largely old, unairconditioned buildings can be sweltering, even before temperatures hit the '90s. But I'm interested in hearing your take - Philly school staff, students and parents - what were conditions like in your building today?
Sissy's— cmoney- Yes they are, but they had the time to use and the intentions were good ones but as usual the district makes the wrong decision again.
— Originale Magistra - The original Magistra can most likely spell the word "original." — Devoted Teacher
- I do declare. And you call yourself a teacher? Clearly you never had experienced the joy of the study of Latin. My Latin teacher was Magistra to me. Originale translates to English as original. Just like the English accomponeying icon. As a student of Latin, I got it immediately. You Madam are what we call in New Orleans- an imbecile.
— clay_bertrand - You are correct Clay. It has been a while since I had my high school Latin, but that is rather basic. Some say that Latin is the root of all language, and certainly English is a derivative of Latin. I find it very odd that a so called "Devoted Teacher" did not recognize that. Notice how she was first to pounce for a perceived misspelling and just wrote about the misspelling with venom in her soul. She did not comment at all on the subject of the story. This must be one of those malcontent incompetent overpaid PFT slugs that brought SDP to their knees with exorbitant costs and little production. I see those teacher slugging out of school early. It gives the truly devoted teachers a bad name. How could a teacher not recognize Latin? Anyway, to get back to the article, the district really messed-up because the temperature and humidity today was very comfortable.
— Mr_Hankey - non story.— Rambert80
- Hot. Should be 1/2 days for students the whole week.— Mr Norristown 6
Comment removed.- I think I've finally got you figured out, cleanup. You're 10 years old! — PhillySteel36
- Sitting in class now ready to leave. Students have nothing to do, this was all to get people out of the buildings. Students shouldn't have class at all this week.— IMATEACHER
- If you're really a teacher, you should be giving students something to do - and you shouldn't be online. Your language suggests that you might actually be a student. — Devoted Teacher
- You're obviously not really a teacher if you think kids are working like it's PSSA week on a hot half day with just a few days left in the year. To think... I felt sorry for you before when those above blasted you for not recognizing latin. Maybe you teach in a private school. — PhillySteel36
- Your post makes no sense. No one said anything about working like it's PSSA week. School remains in session, though, and it's our job to keep on teaching, making it as interesting and fun as possible. Interesting for you to react this way considering I supported you a few days ago when you posted about another story. You're welcome.
I could care less about the Latin jibes. I know one teacher out of dozens of good ones who speak Latin. It's a great language to know, but it's certainly not a common one to take up in this day and age. I proudly teach in an inner city school, btw, with kids who deserve more than a marginalized education offered by people who think they can stop working after Memorial Day. Happily, most of my colleagues believe otherwise.— Devoted Teacher - your philly dot com temperature reading shows 79 at noon. when i was a kid they would wait until the actual event occurred (heat, snow, whatever) instead of opting for preemption. plus, what are you teaching the kids who might have to, as soon as school ends, go to work when it's hot.— eaglesfillthesky
- This is just a way to try and save some money. Everyone knows grades are in and nothing is being done anyway. Make the rest of the week 1/2 days so that parents can make arrangements accordingly.— jcc0621
During the school year, you’ll frequently find her hosting live chats about the district on Philly.com. Please do pass along the scoop about what’s going on at your Philadelphia public school; Kristen welcomes tips, story ideas and witty banter at kgraham@phillynews.com or 215-854-5146.
You can also follow Kristen on Twitter here.
