CHICAGO — When city students arrived for the first day of school under the blazing temperatures of a Midwest heat wave, the staff greeted them with some unusual school supplies: water bottles, fans and wet towels for their necks.
What they couldn’t always offer was air conditioning.
“It’s kind of hard to focus because everyone was sweating,” said Deniyah Jones, a 12-year-old seventh-grader at Nash Elementary on Chicago’s West Side, which has just a few window units for the entire building.
This year’s August heat exposed a tug-of-war in school districts that are under pressure to start school earlier than ever but are unable to pay to equip aging buildings with air conditioning. Parents who worry that hot classrooms are a disadvantage for their kids are issuing an ultimatum: Make classes cooler, or start the year later.
As temperatures soared past 90 last week, some Midwest schools gave students extra water and bathroom breaks or canceled after-school activities. Districts from St. Joseph, Mo., to Frankfort, Ind., sent kids home early. In Fargo, N.D., five schools got the week off, and schools in Minneapolis closed down, too. The Associated Press
