Next year, Denver students attending schools without air conditioning might start their academic year in September, in the hope that the hottest days of summer will be over.
Denver Public Schools Superintendent Susana Cordova said the district’s calendar committee is exploring the idea of creating an alternative calendar for schools that lack air conditioning. She didn’t lay out specific dates but said the school year would begin and end later to avoid losing instructional time.
“We know that there are times when high temperatures have resulted in hot classrooms and difficult teaching and learning conditions,” she said.
In August students return to school on days when temperatures still reach well into the 90s. Some teachers have led protests, saying their students were too hot to learn and that some kids had gotten sick. The district doesn’t have a heat threshold at which it will cancel school, but principals can dismiss early if they think temperatures are dangerous.
Across the district, 60 schools lack full air conditioning, although three are scheduled to get it this year. The rest will get some combination of heat mitigation measures, like “night purging,” which brings in cooler air overnight; standard fans and specialized ones meant to mix air of different temperatures; portable coolers; upgraded exhaust units to improve ventilation; and new window treatments.
Denver Classroom Teachers Association President Tiffany Choi had called for the district to push the first day of school until after Labor Day. Some hoped that if Proposition CC passed, the district would receive enough extra money to begin adding air conditioning, but the proposal to end refunds if the state collected more than a capped amount in taxes was soundly defeated.
If the district delays the first day of school, the first semester might have to continue after winter break, and students might have shortened holiday breaks, according to district and union officials. Other possible wrinkles are conflicts in sports schedules with other districts and fewer days to prepare for the SAT and state tests.
Cordova said that whether the alternative schedule moves forward will depend on how many principals are interested.
“It is a complicated process to come up with an alternative calendar,” she said.