Early Dismissal Due to Excessive Heat for Philadelphia Public Schools

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Source: Chestnut Hill Patch

Philadelphia public schools, including J.S. Jenks, will be closing at 1:30 p.m., the school district announced today, due to excessive heat and humidity.

The district cited an advisory from the National Weather Service, warning that temperatures in the mid-90s and high humidity could lead to heat illness.

According to the release, routine transportation will be available at schools at the 1:30 p.m. dismissal.

The NWS announced a heat advisory on Tuesday that will last until 8 p.m. tonight.


Read more: http://chestnuthill.patch.com/articles/early-dismissal-due-to-excessive-heat-for-philadelphia-public-schools

[bbernardini]

1. Yep. I teach there, and this is a good call.

Two teachers in my building left early yesterday because the heat made them sick, and we even have A/C. I can imagine the buildings that don't must be miserable.

Of course, the kids in the last shortened class are going to be in rare form. :)

[supernova]

2. IS A/C too expensive?

I remember going to my 5&6 grade school. It was 20s era and didn't have A/C 3d and 4th floors were miserable.

[PA Democrat]

38. Many of the older schools in PA do not have AC

and with Gov. Corbett's (R- of course!) plans to decimate funding for education, I don't see how school districts could afford improvements to old schools, let along building new ones. Districts are laying off teachers, eliminating programs and even considering going to a 4 day school week to make ends meet.

[Lasher]

3. What do schools in Arizona do when temperatures get into the Mid-90s?

Looks like it's 96 in Phoenix right now.

[PavePusher]

8. We turn the heat up.

But seriously, mid 90's is a fairly cool summer day here in Tucson. Why are people such whimps these days....? :shrug:

[mimitabby]

15. humidity

you have NO idea how debilitating temps like that with high humidity can be. there are no comparisons to what you have in the desert.

[ScreamingMeemie]

17. I live in Houston (and lived in MI, WI, NY and the Carolinas) I have an idea...

And I kind of agree with the wimp thing. It's been in the mid -90's (hit 100 here today). My son's in school, and only some of the rooms (computer) have A/C. :shrug:

[Name removed]

32. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ScreamingMeemie]

36. Erm...I said that? No, I'm saying that calling school for a warm day

is wimpy. Sorry. It hit almost 100 here, in Houston, yesterday and my son was not sent home from school. No, his school is not entirely A/C. You know what we do down here? We send them with water, and teachers make sure all are hydrated. Conversely, when they were thinking of calling school last winter because it got down in the teens, I thought it was pretty wimpy. Moving on, none of his classrooms up in MI were air conditioned and there were days in June that hit in the high 90's...never sent home from school. Again, the kids were all drinking water. It really is that simple.

So, I guess I'll just say I'm startled at just how rude DUers can be when they disagree. :shrug: Have a great day.

[Lasher]

18. I know exactly what heat with high humidity feels like.

I have suffered 100% humidity (no, not 99.9%) in Seoul, Korea - with no air conditioning. I have also been to Phoenix when you could literally fry an egg on a sidewalk. High humidity would make that worse but it still qualifies as pretty damned hot.

[PavePusher]

21. Actually, I do.

Born in New Hampshire, but lived have lived in Fayetteville, N.C., Tokyo Japan, Abilene Texas, Fort Walton Florida and Central Africa with a few side trips to Iraq.

95-105 and Humid, yes, it sucks. 110 and dry ain't no picnic either. 120 in the shade, doesn't matter what the humidity is any more, just drink water and fry your soul.

[WatsonT]

22. Oh please tell me what high temps plus high humidity is like

coming from Houston I have no concept of either.

[ScreamingMeemie]

24. Hehehe... I thought I had an idea what high humidity was, after living

in WI and MI... and then I moved here, to Houston. Boy howdy, it gets icky.

[WatsonT]

25. No kidding

some days it seems you can swim to work.

But hey, I hear it's good for your skin.

[October]

26. our brick buildings with black tar rooftops, no A/C, fans or ventilation are like ovens

Seriously...

Many of our schools in these older cities were just not built with with air circulation in mind (row homes...etc.)

People from the Northeast laugh when southern states close schools for snow flurries, too, I guess.

Do we have to be such bullies, though? i mean, a lot of elderly people and infants die in these homes every summer.

[CreekDog]

31. some people are so wimpy that during heat waves they die and stuff

when the heat indexes in the Northeast go over 100.

why are they so wimpy that they die and stuff?

maybe you can learn them how to be tougher and not wimpy and stuff.

(ps-I lived in Tucson...heat warnings and precautions wherever they are are not to be considered "wimpy")

what a disgrace your post is.

[JVS]

10. Adjust the AC. Schools in Pennsylvania often only have AC for a few rooms.

[City of Mills]

11. Does Arizona have humidity?

That's usually what makes the heat insufferable.

[blm]

12. That's DRY air. Plus, northerners' body temps are used to GRADUAL warming thru the spring, not such

a drastic change from such a cool spring to hot and humid. Remember, just last week it was still cool and rainy in the northern states.

[Lasher]

16. Well yeah, it's a dry heat. All the same it feels pretty hot sometimes.

[WatsonT]

23. So yankees are soft?

;-)

[harun]

4. It's really humid here right now.

[ananda]

5. What wusses ...

I have lived in Texas all my life, and heat is just a fact of life.
Never once has anything been changed or called off because
of heat... even before the days of a/c.

[blm]

13. Not a fair comparison. Northerners bodies ADJUST to season changes. If you live in consistently hot

and conditions your body has been conditioned to endure those circumstances. Would every Texan welcome a harsh Great lakes style winter without access to heavy duty heating units?

[ScreamingMeemie]

19. Some of us had quite a few weeks of harsh temps (teens to 20's)

in my area of Houston this winter. It was uncomfortable, but I'm used to it. Grew up in the North. While some schools canceled for the freezing temps, I thought they were wimps too...if it helps. :)

[Cherchez la Femme]

29. Deal with below zeroes on a regular basis

then we'll talk

[ScreamingMeemie]

30. I have. Read my posts again. Born in WI.

:eyes:

I've lived in severe cold, and now, severe heat (at times).

[meow mix]

37. bodies readjust in about a year.. i just moved from LA to MT 3 years ago

i didnt think i could handle the cold.. but now i love the cold and i cant take very much heat lol. be out walking in the snow in tshirts around here

[Igel]

20. They're being wimps.

Yes, they're not used to the heat. Therefore they complain. Being used to the heat helps get over wimpitude.

My son was born near the beginning of a new year. The day after we brought him home from the hospital I sat in the parking lot in west NY state and wondered why the defroster wasn't working on the windshield when the car was moving. It was barely working when the car was still. I checked the weather. The high that day was -1 F.

A few months later I was in Houston, where the Starbucks near where I was working, a cubic building made of glass, sweated in the heat and humidity to form puddles and streams on the sidewalk. 85% humidity, 96 degrees. Then we had a thunderstorm and I understood what *really* high humidity meant as it soared.

Wimps.

Then again, in MD we had a heat day once. It was in the upper 80s, it was in April, in a building with no windows that opened but good central A/C. Then the A/C broke. Ciao.

[rainbow4321]

28. Heh...our mass transit workers bailed on us during Super Bowl week

The wanna-be train system in Dallas was shut down because of ice on the wires used to run the train system and train management OK'd their workers to NOT go OUT on the platforms to give stranded passengers UPDATES on what was going on because....it was TOO COLD for the workers to go out there, according to the train system management. So the passengers out in the zero degree weather were left stranded with no train officials to turn to for questions about the limping-along train system.
So, in answer to your question, after having lived thru the Super Bowl fiasco week of rolling black outs (and also LONG black outs) because of Texans cranking up their electric heat, schools being shut down for a week, and impassable roads, I'd say the kind of winters you are talking about wouldn't go over well down here. One week of it was more than enough for most.

[blm]

34. It's a PHYSICAL thing....some peoples' bodies adjust quicker to extreme temp changes, many don't.

Wimpiness has nothing to do with it. Thank you for your thoughtful reply.

[rainbow4321]

27. Having been born/raised in NJ and then living here in TX for 24 yrs

I can say the one thing that is wrong is when people from one of those two areas say that the other group is wimpy about weather.

80% of NJ schools don't have air conditioning. I read that a few years ago during one of their heat waves forced schools to close.

I know mine in the early 1980's sure didn't. But we were out of school by early June and temps were in the low 80's and tolerable. The one year we had to go til a week before the 4th of July was unbearable. By then it was in the mid 80's and no wind so open windows did nothing. But that is as high as it usually got all summer.

I can't bring myself to tell them that they should tolerate the heat better. Because what that will get you are a bunch of people from up there asking about why it is that Dallas literally shut down the entire week of the Super Bowl because of zero degree weather and lingering ice/snow on the ground. There are local school districts here who made their students go to school this past Monday (Memorial Day) to help make up for the school days that were lost during that week of paralyzing ice. I'm sure there are some Northern folks who would have been a bit confused about us had they seen video of TX drivers "stranded" on top of icey overpasses or playing bumper cars on the roads cuz some down here in TX have yet to learn that speeding/slamming on the brakes doesn't quite go well with icy roads.

[CreekDog]

33. calling people "wusses" because you *think* you are stronger than them re: heat

:thumbsdown:

do you like that word?

do you like calling people weak?

does it feel good?

[AtheistCrusader]

6. What the hell is going on. Spring hasn't even STARTED in Seattle yet.

This is still Feb weather. Sub-50's overnight, rain, rain, more rain.
We're not even at the mid-point for the year, and we've got our yearly average rainfall in the bucket already.

[starroute]

14. Blame the jet stream

It's shaped like a roller coaster at the moment. A big downward loop over the Pacific Northwest means cold wet weather there. A big upward loop over the Midwest and Northeast means unseasonable heat.

And where the cold and hot meet in the middle, you get tornadoes.

Something special for everybody. ;-)

[RebelOne]

7. I attended a vocation high school in downtown Miami in the '50s..

It was 11 stories and did not have air conditioning. The elevators were packed and most times I could not get on them, so I would have to run up to my home room on the 9th floor and then down at the end of the day. I was usually soaked in sweat. To this day, I don't know how I survived. I guess I just didn't know any different. Now, I am in North Georgia and could not live without air conditioning. At least all the schools here are air conditioned because we have some brutal summers.

[Citizen Worker]

9. Just remember, climate change is a hoax.

[pintobean]

35. Blaming every weather event

on climate change could make some people think so.