Record Ohio Heat Forces Schools to Take Action

HeatWaveInterview from Joseph A Ciccolini on Vimeo.

With some days reaching the mid-90s this September, local schools are having to make the decision whether or not to stay open.

Summer 2018 became the second hottest summer on record in the Akron area, with the mean average temperatures clocking in at 73.9 degrees.

While many schools in the area have air conditioning, there are also a number of schools that do not. Crestwood Middle School and Crestwood High School in Mantua are two of them.

David Toth, superintendent of the Crestwood Local School District, makes the decisions on whether to close the schools or keep them open. He decided Crestwood Local Schools would remain open during the weeklong heat wave, though others in the area closed. 

“[The elementary schools] are conditioned, the middle and high schools are not,” Toth says. “We purchased big industrial-sized fans a couple of years ago to circulate air through those buildings.”

The decision to remain open was made partly due to the fans. Toth sent out a notice to parents and guardians before the heat wave to let them know the schools were not to close.

“We give parents an option that if their student had a medical condition they were excused from school, or had an early dismissal,” Toth says.

The students were also provided with frequent water breaks, and during the second day of the heat wave received popsicles.

Toth says attendance did not suffer, and the weather did not get hot until around 11 or 12. There wasn’t much backlash, either–except perhaps on social media from students hoping to get a day off. 

“We want kids to be in school,” Toth says. “If they’re not in school, they’re not learning. They have to be safe, obviously—you do the best you can to make a judgement.”

Ohio did away with calamity days for the 2014-2015 school year and instead follow a system of minimum hours. Schools may schedule excess hours above the minimum hour number so that if it needs to close, it will not affect the rest of the school year. 

To reach a complete school year, Ohio schools are required to have 455 hours for half-day kindergarten students, 910 hours for full day-kindergarten through sixth grade, and 1,001 hours for seventh through 12th grade students.

Toth described the previous use of calamity days as a much more complicated process than minimum hours. Most Ohio schools used to only be allotted five calamity days, which made the decision to close even more difficult. 

“Depending on your contract with your union, both teacher and classified staff like bus drivers and secretaries, you might have to pay extra money to come in,” Toth says.

If the school happened to use up all of its calamity days, it could also affect family matters. 

“You maybe affect family vacations depending on when you make [the days] up,” Toth says. “Is it over spring break? Is it the end of the school year during the summer?” 

Closing the schools can also have an immediate impact on parents and guardians. 

“You feel for the parents because the parents have to scramble…you know, what are they gonna do with their children, especially their young children,” Toth says. “How are they going to get daycare for their kids? Those are the tough calls.”

Toth understands how the parents may feel because he himself is a father. 

“It’s really the parents, that’s who I feel for, ’cause I have four kids too and you gotta scramble to find care for them,” Toth says. 

Only time will tell if the high temperatures this year was only a one-time occurrence, or if it is an indicator of a trend of more abnormal heat heading into fall. 

It’s even caused lawmakers to propose bills that would involve installing air conditioning in all Ohio school buildings without it. 

Heat closures may become a continuing issue for Ohio schools. More schools may have to implement special procedures to deal with the heat to help keep students in the classroom.

A record heat wave hit Ohio in early September check out my interview with a local school superintendent on what measures schools took to stay open https://t.co/KF4SBnDJeI

— ReporterJoe (@ReporterJoe2) September 25, 2018

Unusually warm September weather causes certain local schools to close—what happens when they stay open?

— Hailee Carlin (@hailee_carlin) September 25, 2018

Joey ~ video package, on-camera interview, tweet, data table of school closures

Hailee ~ written article, interview, tweet, graph of temperatures, additional research on heat and schools