OHIO — The Cleveland Metropolitan School District announced 13 schools closed Wednesday because of excessive heat. The district said they made the decision with the health and safety of students as top priority. And in Parma, a Cleveland suburb, schools were also closed because of the heat.
The school district said two of the 15 schools have air conditioning which also played into the decision to close.
“You’re putting students in the classroom that really even if they’re healthy and certainly we don’t want to jeopardize anyones health but beyond health there’s a comfort factor, there’s a reasonability factor so to speak to being in a classroom and we want students engaged in their learning not just passing the time by being as quiet as possible,” said Dr. Charles Smialek the superintendent of Parma City Schools. “You know our teachers do as best they can to keep their classrooms cool and calm but again at that point you’re simply passing time. You’re not necessarily engaged in anything productive.”
Columbus City Schools sent a notice that 20 schools would begin the year with remote learning on Thursday and Friday citing extreme heat as the reason.
Spectrum News 1 reached out to Cincinnati Public Schools who told us their schools are air conditioned and they aren’t anticipating having to close due to the heat.
