HOT WEATHER FORCES SCHOOLS TO DISMISS EARLY WEDNESDAY

Allen Walker said his classroom at L.J. Schultz School was hot as a Roman candle.

"I looked at my friend and said, It's so hot, you know we're fixin' to get out of school early today,'" said the seventh-grader as he mounted his bike Wednesday to head home.

Walker's classmate, Patrick Chapman, 12, said the heat gave him a headache.

"Whew, it was pretty hot," said Chapman with an exaggerated swipe of the forehead. "I'm going to go home and get to my air-conditioned room."

As temperatures maxed out near 90 degrees -- school officials said the heat index on Schultz's third floor was 105 -- Cape Girardeau's public high school, junior high and Schultz knocked off early Wednesday for the third day since classes began Aug. 22.

Some parents who picked their children up at school Wednesday said they were worried about them being in hot classrooms.

"When I was in school, nobody had air conditioning. We were used to it," said Ron Kemp, who has a daughter at Schultz. "Now there's air conditioning everywhere -- your car, your job and home. So you know it's hard on kids in those rooms."

Anne Moreland, who also has a daughter at Schultz, said she knew it had to be "excruciatingly hot" in the rooms. Moreland was glad to know that in all likelihood this would be the last year students would suffer the late-summer heat.

All air conditioned

That's because Schultz will close after this school year. A new high school will open next fall. Cape Girardeau Central High School will be air conditioned and house seventh- and eighth-graders, and the junior high will house fifth- and sixth-graders.

While the existing high school is not air conditioned, the Cape Girardeau school board recently approved $3.6 million to carry out a list of items, including additional air conditioning. That work is expected to be completed by fall 2002

The junior high has been air conditioned for some time.

"So this hopefully will be the last time we have to deal with this," said assistant superintendent of schools Mark Bowles. "I sat in a classroom Friday and literally watched kids drip with sweat. It broke my heart."

Bowles said Cape Girardeau schools have never had to be dismissed early for heat-related reasons after Labor Day, which is Monday, and the latest school has ever had to be dismissed early was Sept. 4, 1998.

Post-Labor Day relief

Bowles said usually after Labor Day nights are cooler, which makes the rooms cooler in the morning. That means it takes them longer to heat up and they are bearable longer through the day.

"But as soon as we came in today, it was an oven to start off," he said. "It was like a big old bread kiln. There's no circulation, nothing."

He said the situation frustrates teachers.

"They want to get moving, they have a curriculum plan," he said. "And they need an environment kids can learn in and be excited about being there."

Thunderstorms forecast during the next few days may offer some relief. A cooler weekend should also be followed by cooler mornings. Labor Day and Tuesday should be partly cloudy with highs in the mid-80s.

Bowles said he was encouraged by the forecast.

"We'll keep our fingers crossed," he said.