With a new school year starting during a month that generally produces the hottest daytime temperatures in Colorado, Poudre School District has created a set of criteria it will use to determine whether to dismiss students in its elementary and middle schools two hours early or cancel school entirely for excessive heat.
Thirty-two of the district’s 49 noncharter schools do not have air-conditioning or other adequate cooling systems, Superintendent Brian Kingsley said at a Board of Education meeting Tuesday night.
As a result, the buildings sometimes become “too hot to be safe and healthy learning environments,” according to an email sent by the district Wednesday to students, staff and families.
Adding air-conditioning to all PSD schools without would cost the district $167 million to $268 million , an outside contractor said last year while performing a building-by-building assessment.
Here’s what students, families and staff need to know: