Baltimore City public school students returning to school Tuesday after Memorial Day weekend got an additional half-day break.
With the heat index skyrocketing and temperatures blazing into the 90s and approaching triple digits in classrooms, students were dismissed at noon Tuesday.
“The policy is that if it reaches 90 degrees by 11 a.m., we announce early dismissal,” said Vanessa Pyatt, a Baltimore City public schools spokeswoman. “We used to get to that number from BWI, which is typically lower than the city, but now we take the reading from the Inner Harbor and it includes the heat index.”
Only about 25 percent of the city?s school buildings are air-conditioned.
“We have the oldest buildings in the state,” said Baltimore schools spokeswoman Alex Hughes. “The schools on average are 45.6 years old and some are 100 years old. All the renovations and all our new infrastructure include air conditioning.”
Alex said the city schools had requested $100 million this year from the state in capital building funds for systemic repairs and renovations, which typically include heat and air-conditioning work, but only received $39.4 million.
“It?s an annual issue,” Alex said of closing schools, “but it?s not just us ? it happens across the state.”
Schools did close across the state, but not nearly to the extent that they did in Baltimore.
In Baltimore County, schools spokesman Charles Herdon said all were open for a full day. Of the 162 schools in Baltimore County, Herdon said, 67 schools are fully air-conditioned and 16 are partially air-conditioned.
Anne Arundel County?s Van Bokkelen Elementary and Chesapeake Bay Middle closed after air conditioning at both schools broke down. Arundel High School dismissed students two hours early after temperatures reached the mid-80s in some parts of the building.
All Carroll County schools were open, but spokeswoman Carey Gaddis said West Middle, the only county school without air conditioning, would close today.
In Howard County, Glenelg High School closed at 11:30 a.m. after the air-conditioning system broke down.
Of Harford County?s 51 schools, only Joppatowne and Deerfield elementary schools don?t have air conditioning, and four others have only partial air conditioning.
Though air-conditioning problems were reported at Bel Air and Edgewood high schools, no schools were closed Tuesday.
Only one school closed last year, according to spokesman Don Morrison.
Examiner Staff Writer Stephanie Tracy contributed to this report.
