Ways to keep kids from taking the heat

Mid-August now means welcome back to school. And time for the four Rs.

Reading, Writing, Arithmetic -- and Roasting.

Whoever thought it was a good idea to start the school year in the middle of sultry August should have been at an Indian Prairie Unit District 204 meeting in Naperville Monday, where parents let the school board know they are angry that their children have to sit in hot classrooms. Or at a St. Charles Unit District 303 board meeting last week, where the teachers union president lobbied for additional air conditioning and said: "The teachers are dying out there. They're exhausted, and the students are exhausted. It's not a good learning environment."

The problem, which afflicts other suburban districts, would be solved by air-conditioning all the schools. But this is an expensive proposition. In District 204, for instance, it would cost $1.1 million per school, with an additional $300,000 in annual operating costs. That money could be used to pay items used year-round -- computers, books, not to mention funding teacher and teacher aide salaries -- as opposed to air conditioning that would be used just a few days out of the school year.

There are alternatives to explore:

• Go back to starting school in September. According to statistics from the Midwestern Regional Climate Center, you can expect, on average, 2.3 days in a typical DuPage County September where the temps will hit 90 or above. In August, the average is 6.9 days.

Yes, June can be hot. Indeed, the average number of 90-plus days in June equals that of August. But schools can research just how many of those 90-plus days in June come late in the month, when there would be no school. On the whole, June is cooler than August.

Or start school in September and schedule fewer vacation days in order to wrap up by early June.

• Look at what it would it cost to retrofit schools to allow for open windows as opposed to installing air conditioning. This would make classrooms a little more comfortable on hot days and might also help improve the air quality in schools overall.

• If the temperature is forecast to be very hot on a given day in August, or even September or June, don't hold school that day. Take an inclement-weather day, just as when it's bitterly cold.

• Schedule field trips at the August-start of the school year, so schoolchildren are in cooler places like museums or outside in places like zoos or forest preserves.

Some folks think the best solution is to make the kids tough it out, just as they did in the old days. But that's hardly fair, when some schools are air-conditioned and others are not. And let's face it. This is a society that has become accustomed to air conditioning. It's rare not to have air conditioning in a home or building.

But there are ways to address heat in classrooms that wouldn't take much sweat, or money.