MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Monongalia County Schools will release two hours early Friday due to forecast heat and humidity. Superintendent Eddie Campbell came to WAJR’s “Talk of the Town” to explain how that decision was reached.
Meetings within the district began on Wednesday when the forecast said temperatures could reach the 90’s with the possibility of triple digit heat indices. Other factors considered were students have not yet had a chance to acclimate themselves to summer heat, hot buses and HVAC systems in some buildings that are not operating at 100 percent capacity.
Campbell said the facilities issue is complicated by supply chain problems- parts needed are up to nine months from delivery.
“There were some concerns about the fact that our buses are not air conditioned,” Campbell said. “The temperatures on those buses can get very high if indeed the temperatures reach what was projected to be.”
The two hour early release prevents students from having to endure the hottest and most dangerous hours of the s=day in terms of heat.
“We just thought the most prudent and safest thing for our kids was to get them out of school before we started to see the significant rise of temperatures in our buildings and outside,” Campbell said.
Campbell said the decision places value on the health of students while understanding the lost instruction time will have to be addressed.
“What we’re doing is weighing the value of a couple extra hours of instruction versus the safety of our students and making sure that their well-being is being considered. We take this very seriously.”
High temperatures can produce heat rash, heat cramps, heat exhaustion or even heat stroke and each student has different tolerances to each condition.
“Heat is a serious issue, you read about it and see it on the news all the time,” Campbell said.