It started out as a normal odd block day at Fossil Ridge High School on Aug. 29. Students were sweating as the school day ensued, and by third period a rumor had begun: school was called off for Friday. Then, on the Poudre School District website, in a bold boxed message, a bulletin announced “On Friday, August 28th, all Poudre School District schools will be closed due to the heat.” School was officially going to be closed.
As students and staff alike prepared for the upcoming four-day Labor Day weekend, the district was in a flurry of phone calls and decisions for the future. The website’s announcement also listed all of the reasons for closing schools.
Among many points was the assertion of improper cooling in nine of 50 schools in PSD that have a cooling system. According to the bulletin, many rooms were 94 degrees or higher and cooled buildings still had rooms up to 83 degrees and higher. “The heat doesn’t really affect my learning because my classes upstairs are in the morning, but it’s definitely hot in the building and I know it affects other students,” senior Sarah Pruznick said.
As schools get hotter and systems become increasingly outdated for growing school populations and aging buildings, new compromises are being considered on the district level. FRHS has increasingly become outdated in its originally “ecological” design. “When we opened the school, as a teacher I thought it made sense at the time, but the reality is when we opened the building we only had about 850 kids and now when we’re at over 2,100 students,” Principal Will Allen said. “I think that sadly the system is struggling to keep up with the demand.”
It is not just a FRHS issue—it’s district-wide. Joni Baker, a health technician and paraprofessional at Bacon Elementary said, “Children are wanting to stay inside for recess and many come into the Health Office due to heat exhaustion after being outside for only 15-20 minutes.”
Changes are being discussed at the moment whether to add cooling systems or merely change the PSD school year schedule to begin later in the year—after the hottest days of summer are over. . “They have actually been considering now for the past five years whether we extend the start day into after Labor Day,” Mr. Allen said.
Since the cost for installing new and efficient systems for all 50 schools in PSD would be an enormous cost, the thought of changing school start and finish dates is becoming a more probable solution.
