Hot town, schools stay open
So here we are, at the end of the school year, and temperatures are headed into the 90s this afternoon. Naturally, that has the kids talking on the playground. "Will they close schools early today because of the heat?"
Fay Chen writes from Baltimore County: "The playground gossip states that there's a formula the schools to use to determine whether or not to close for heat. Some say if it's 80 degrees by 10 a.m., or 90 degrees by 11 a.m. the decision is made automatically. I've searched Baltimore County's website though, and can't find a reference to an official determination schedule. Do you know if one exists, or is it just a myth? Thank you!"
The gossip is half right. Baltimore CITY schools have a policy that states they will close schools two and a half hours early on days when the heat INDEX reaches 90 degrees at the Inner Harbor by 11 a.m. In the COUNTY, however, there is no such policy. School officials there take hot days on a case-by-case basis, taking the duration of the hot spell and the conditions of the schools into consideration.
At 11 a.m. this morning, the temperature at the Inner Harbor was 92 degrees, with a dewpoint of 68. That made the heat index 98 degrees. But city school officials nevertheless decided not to close. Schools spokeswoman Edie House said the facilities folks calculated the heat index at 87 degrees. She had no information on how they reached that number. Sorry kids.
By 1 p.m., the temperature at the Inner Harbor was 95 degrees, with a dewpoint of 71 degrees. That made the heat Index 104 degrees. Twelve city schools have closed today due to power outages, according to their website.
Usually, school buildings don't heat up to unbearable temperatures until the warm weather has persisted for several days. This looks like a one-day heat wave.
Comments
95 degrees in our auditorium this afternoon. many parents just came and picked their children up. the city school people at North Ave. can't even interpret the temperature as it was 92 degrees at 11:00
Posted by: Mike newhouse | June 8, 2007 4:37 PM
The BCPSS published policy states that BCPSS uses the National Weather Service's information from the Inner Harbor. According to that, the heat index was 96. Apparently there was a memo that was created that stated that BCPSS would use accuweather instead. For some reason, accuweather was reporting about 10 degrees cooler than the other websites (I assume because they use a different location to gather their data). Nonetheless, BCPSS chose to not follow the very clear policy published on their website, which made for an extraordinarily painful and useless school day. Ignoring policy when it's easier may be rather standard for BCPSS, but this was particularly cruel to anyone that was forced to spend the day in 95 degree plus building. Next time this situation arises, I would urge the people making the decisions to step out of their air conditioned offices and spend just an hour in one of their schools to see how much learning occurs when students are drowning in sweat and can barely breathe.
Posted by: MK | June 8, 2007 10:20 PM
Perhaps the solution is to not have all of the extra "professional days" tacked on and have full weeks of school. Cut back on Christmas and Easter break and go back after Labor Day (like was done forever) and be out the first week of June. This same tune is played every year and people use the poor suffering children as their excuse. We have millions for the Grand Prix but no money for air conditioning. How convenient.
Posted by: Maryland Mother | June 7, 2011 5:57 PM