ELKINS, W.Va. — Five Randolph County schools were dismissed early on Monday afternoon because of high classroom temperatures.
At noon on Monday, schools without air conditioning around the county sent their students home. Temperatures within the facilities were reported to be excessive by the school’s principals.
Superintendent Pam Hewitt said, “We have been monitoring the temperatures in our schools, so this morning we checked in with our schools about 10:30 a.m. or 10:45 a.m. to learn that many of our classrooms in those five buildings were ranging anywhere between 76 degrees all the way up to 84.”
Schools without air conditioning in Randolph County include Harman School, Coalton Elementary School, Homestead Elementary School, Beverly Elementary School and Valley Head Elementary School. Each of these schools were dismissed early Monday.
Hewitt said the Randolph County Board of Education took morning and afternoon temperatures as well as humidity into consideration when determining that schools would be dismissed early.
“We’ve tried different things as far as trying to do everything we can to try to cool the classrooms down as much as we can and to try to make the students as comfortable as we can, but when it’s that warm outside, there’s not a whole lot that you can do,” Hewitt said.
Coordinator of Child Nutrition LaDonna Rosencrance said students are provided with frozen fruit bars on days that temperatures are warm. These cool snacks are typically provided in the afternoons once all of the students have been served lunch, she said.
In addition, many teachers in schools that do not have air conditioning are able to use fans or small, portable air conditioners in their rooms, as well as in hallways, in an effort to keep rooms as comfortable as possible for students and staff.
It was recently proposed by board members that a protocol should be created that indicates at what temperature school principals should report excessive heat to the board office.
According to the West Virginia Department of Education website, the uncertified enrollment numbers of each school are as follows: Harman School 201, Coalton Elementary School 155, Homestead Elementary School 138, Beverly Elementary School 238, and Valley Head Elementary School 39.
In addition, each of the five schools that were dismissed early due to excessive classroom temperatures were built before 1955. In the past, the Randolph County Board of Education has attempted to pass a bond, in 2012, in order to make renovations and upgrades to these facilities that would address the installation of necessary electrical upgrades and the installation of HVAC systems in schools without air conditioning.
“We will monitor each day and try to make the best decision that we can for our students and staff,” Hewitt said. “That’s all we can do until the heat lets up a little bit.”
Hewitt explained that dismissing students early will continue to be a last resort option.
