Too hot for school? Why classes could be canceled the next couple of weeks

With a new school year starting during a month that generally produces the hottest daytime temperatures in Colorado, Poudre School District has created a set of criteria it will use to determine whether to dismiss students in its elementary and middle schools two hours early or cancel school entirely for excessive heat.

Thirty-two of the district’s 49 noncharter schools do not have air-conditioning or other adequate cooling systems, Superintendent Brian Kingsley said at a Board of Education meeting Tuesday night.

As a result, the buildings sometimes become “too hot to be safe and healthy learning environments,” according to an email sent by the district Wednesday to students, staff and families.

Adding air-conditioning to all PSD schools without would cost the district $167 million to $268 million , an outside contractor said last year while performing a building-by-building assessment.

Here’s what students, families and staff need to know:

What will trigger consideration of heat-related early releases or closures?

If one or more of the following conditions are met, the district will consider calling a two-hour early release or full school closure, according to the email:

• The Heat & Health Tracker for Larimer County indicates major or extreme levels of risk of heat-related impacts to individuals, which are represented respectively on its color-coded scale by red and magenta
• The NWS forecast for ZIP code 80521 indicates a high temperature above 95 degrees Fahrenheit
• The NWS forecast for ZIP code 80521 indicated high temperatures at 90 degrees or higher for three consecutive days

Whenever possible, PSD will provide families and staff 12-24 hours advance notice of a closure or early release, Kingsley said.

PSD administrative offices will remain open during early releases or closures related to heat, he said.

Which schools will the early releases and closures apply to?

All PSD preschools, elementary schools and middle schools other than Poudre Global Academy; the three mountain elementary schools at Livermore, Red Feather Lakes and Stove Prairie; and Poudre Global Academy would be impacted, even those with air conditioning. Also included would be Polaris Expeditionary Learning School, Centennial High School and Poudre Community Academy.

More: Students report reduced thoughts of suicide, self-harm in latest Healthy Kids survey

The district’s four comprehensive high schools and two combined middle-high schools have air conditioning and would remain in session during heat-related early releases or closures, Kingsley said. The mountain elementary schools, Poudre Global Academy and Transitions Pathways programs for 18- to 21-year-olds would also remain in session.

Although some elementary and middle schools that would be impacted have air-conditioning, they share bus routes and other resources with schools that do not and would need to follow the same schedule.

What happens when there is an early release for heat?

• Schools will start at the normal time.
• Breakfast and lunch will be served.
• Field trips scheduled for the afternoon will be canceled.
• Students who ride buses will still do so and will be dropped off at their regular stops two hours earlier than usual.
• Morning early childhood classes will run at their usual times, and afternoon early childhood classes will be canceled. Full-day sessions will be dismissed two hours early.
• After-school activities, including athletic practices and competitions, at these schools will be canceled.

What happens when schools are closed because of heat?

• Those schools will be closed.
• All after-school activities, including athletic practices and competitions, will be canceled.

What happens at the schools not impacted by early releases and closures for heat?

• Schools will operate normally.
• After-school activities, including athletics, for high school students will continue, while those for middle school students will be canceled.

More: Questions and answers with Poudre School District Superintendent Brian Kingsley

What is being done to mitigate heat in schools without air conditioning?

PSD is running building ventilation systems overnight to circulate cooler air through those schools and systems of fans in classrooms and buildings to mitigate heat, the email said. But school safety and security protocols limit the circulation of outside air during school hours, when window ventilation is limited and doors must be closed.

The district continues to look into modifications to the school calendar, as well.

Why not delay the start of school until after Labor Day?

There are a variety of reasons PSD and most other school districts in Colorado begin the school year in August instead of after Labor Day, when daytime temperatures are generally cooler.

PSD’s Board of Education, in fact, listened to a presentation on possible calendar changes during the dinner session that preceded its regular business meeting Tuesday night.

The biggest obstacles are at the high school level because of concurrent enrollment courses, where students receive college credit, as well as national and international testing schedules for Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs.

About 4,000 of PSD’s 9,856 high school students took classes offering college credit last year, Assistant Superintendent Julie Chaplain told the school board. The partnership agreements that those courses are provided through require the high schools to follow an academic schedule that’s similar to those of the partner colleges — primarily Front Range and Aims community colleges, the Community College of Aurora and Metropolitan State University of Denver.

A later start to the school year would also reduce the amount of instructional time available for students to complete the curriculum required to be successful on AP and IB tests, she said.

PSD is exploring the possibility of putting its elementary and middle schools on a different schedule than its high schools — starting and ending the school year two weeks later — but would need to receive the approval of its various employee organizations in the next round of contract negotiations to do so.

There would also be some significant expenses involved in such a move, Kingsley and several members of the Board of Education pointed out, since that would extend the school year by an additional four weeks for many of its transportation, custodial and food-service workers, among others.

The school board asked Chaplain and the calendar committee she is overseeing to solicit feedback and gather additional information on that option to see if it is one that should be considered in future years.

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com , x.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news .

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Too hot for school? Why classes could be canceled the next couple of weeks