SCHOOLS DISMISS EARLY DUE TO HEAT; CAPE SCHOOLS OPEN TODAY TO SHORTENED DAY

Due to temperatures soaring past the 90 degree mark, the first day of classes at Cape Girardeau public schools today will be cut short.

Elementary students will be dismissed at 11:30 a.m. and secondary students dismissed at noon, said James Englehart, director of secondary education.

"The administrators really wanted to go to school all day," Englehart said. "We wanted to get the lunch program started and afternoon kindergarten. But it just didn't seem wise to go all day just because it's the first day of school."

He said weather predictions for today call for a high temperature of 94 to 95 degrees and a heat index of 103 degrees.

The decision to dismiss classes early was made after a committee of educators and health professionals talked Wednesday about the effects of heat on children.

Educators agree that high classroom temperatures do little to promote learning. Area schools opening this week and last have faced high temperatures, and many have elected to dismiss early.

Englehart said school administrators met with Dr. James Hoffman and pediatrics nurse Amy Dunning.

They also consulted a meteorologist.

"The bottom line is that the school district will make a decision on early dismissal when the temperature is 90 degrees and the heat index is above 100," Englehart said. "It is always difficult beyond that because the heat index here and the heat index on third floor of Schultz school is not the same."

Englehart said if the heat index should reach 105, students and staff face health risks from heat exhaustion.

"We will emphasize to teachers to look for signs of heat exhaustion and we will monitor complaints to school nurses," he said.

While opening school in August may not seem the best option, school administrators say scheduling constraints drive the decision.

Missouri law spells out that public school students must attend a minimum of 174 days and 1044 hours of school.

Sometimes, school administrators say, it's tough to get those days and hours in.

Missouri law also says that schools will start after Labor Day but allows districts to choose an agriculture exemption. Many districts, including most locally, enact that exemption routinely to facilitate school calendars.

In Cape Girardeau, the Community Teacher Association proposes calendars that include 179 days of classroom instruction and four teacher workshop days.

"Our district historically has a longer Christmas break, and this year a longer spring break," he said.

Cape Girardeau's school calendar calls for Christmas break from Dec. 18 through Jan. 2 and for spring break from April 1-10. The last day of school is June 7.

Students at Nell Holcomb School have been going home at 1:30 p.m. this week because of the heat.

Superintendent David Fuemmeler said the situation will be reviewed over the weekend. Weather forecasts call for a cooling trend early next week.

In the meantime, he said, "We have tried to slow them down and cut back on activity during recess time. We are trying to do story reading rather than letting them run. We are scheduling plenty of water breaks and trying to make sure they are as cool as possible."

It's a gamble, Fuemmeler said. "You either have hot weather in August or in late May and early June. Last year, we didn't have any hot weather."

If classes are scheduled into the middle of June, teachers face conflicts trying to take summer college courses.

"And we find more family vacations are planned in June than August," Fuemmeler said.

Fuemmeler said Nell Holcomb plans Christmas break from about Dec. 20 through the first of the year.

"Our spring break is normally very small because we are making up days lost because of snow," he said.

Jackson School Superintendent Wayne Maupin says his district begins school in August to allow for inclement weather during the winter months.

"In the past, we've missed as many as 18 days because of bad weather during the winter," he said. "One year, we didn't dismiss school until June 12 because of the days we missed during the winter. That's why we open school in late August, so we can maintain our 176-day school schedule through the end of the school year. We also have relatively short Christmas-New Year and Easter holiday breaks built into our schedule."

The Jackson School District is the largest in Southeast Missouri, covering 550 square miles. Most of 2,010 miles its school buses travel each day are over hilly, rural, county roads. If there is ice or snow on those roads, Maupin said the buses do not move until the roads are cleared or the ice has melted.

Maupin says the heat and humidity in late August is a problem, but points out even hotter, humid weather frequently occurs in early to mid-September, after the Labor Day holiday.

He notes that most of the district's school buildings are now partially or totally air conditioned.

"Westlane Elementary, Orchard Elementary, Gordonville Elementary, North Elementary, and the Kindergarten Annex are now totally air conditioned. Only two elementary schools, Burfordville and Millersville, do not have air conditioning," said Maupin. "Approximately one-fourth of the high school building is air conditioned, and one-third of the junior high school. Our desire is to have all of our schools air conditioned. We have done a feasibility study on air conditioning all of the junior high school and will make a decision soon as to whether or not it's a project we can undertake."

Besides the Millersville and Burfordville grade schools, Maupin is also concerned during hot weather for the high school and junior high school, which have a large concentration of students and faculty. "At least the students in those schools are able to spend some time during the day in an air conditioned area, but the heat and humidity is really tough on our staff. Many of those teachers at those two schools must teach all six of their seven hours each day in classrooms that are not air conditioned," he said.

(Some information for this story provided by Missourian Staff Writer David Hente.)