We wanted to update you on our plans to deal with extremely hot weather, should we experience again the kind of heat that occurred last week. While the school cannot afford to provide air conditioning in all classrooms in the short term, given the severity of the most recent wave of heat, we are actively exploring short-term and long-term solutions to reduce the impact by such weather conditions.
Since the recent heatwave, we have worked with the Department of Catholic Schools so we can call minimum days. Minimum days can be called when the National Weather Service issues a warning of extreme heat. Parents and staff would be notified by phone and e-mail a minimum one day in advance through School Reach. Please be sure we have your current phone numbers and email address so that we can provide proper notice.
If the National Weather Service issues a warning of extreme heat, we will also open classroom windows early in the day to allow air circulation before the start of school, which can help dissipate the heat that builds up inside room overnight. Aside from our swamp coolers (devices that cool air through the evaporation of water), we also ceiling fans and some oscillating fans in our classrooms. During warm weather we will also continue to reduce physical activity, encourage hydration and leave the lights in the classroom whenever possible.
With that being said, I personally guarantee the quality of education your child receives will not be compromised in any way. We always strive to maximize the school day with teachers planning much of that time to cover their curriculum, but we also know that we have many days of enriching, expanding, and going beyond our curricular goals for the year. Obviously we would prefer not to have minimum days, as we could have used that time to work far beyond our goals. Unfortunately, the reality is that we are experiencing hot days more and more each year. As a result, teachers may have to forgo a scheduled day exclusively for enrichment or extracurricular projects in order to ensure the necessary lessons are covered. But after talking with the teachers these last days, they all assured me that they were able to cover their lessons and the curriculum of each grade was more than doable with the remaining days.
Extreme heat has affected classrooms across Southern California and around the country. The safety and health of our students is always our primary concern. We will do everything in our power to provide a classroom environment that is conducive to learning.
Our Faculty Excellence Committee will begin to develop a policy on hot days and homework. In this day and age, heat days should not slow our progress, as many parents and students can access their teachers via email and stay on task on those days. We will have a policy in place soon, so that all teachers, parents and students know the routine and procedure for work assigned during minimum days due to extreme heat. We will provide you more details once the policy is finalized.