Schools Get a First-Hand Lesson in Climate Change, at Their Students’ Expense

As the temperatures in Newton, Mass. soared into the mid-90s this week, third grade teacher Valerie Kelly tried desperately to keep her students at Lincoln-Eliot Elementary School cool.  Kids stretched out on the tile floor to read while administrators delivered water to classrooms, and Kelly and her colleagues were told to discourage any physical activity.

But despite having the blinds drawn and the lights off, the air inside the 1930s-era building, which has only a few window air conditioning units, felt much the same as it did outside.

"The students had sweat pouring down their faces," Kelly said.  "They were lethargic.  It was not an easy situation, to say the least."

Newton stayed open through the heat wave, but dozens of school districts across the country canceled classes or shortened their days because of heat, wildfires or flooding in the last two weeks.  It is a glimpse of the challenge that climate change will pose—and in some cases is already posing—to the American educational system.

Heat was the culprit in closings in New England, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa and South Dakota. Districts in California, Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest canceled classes in late August because of encroaching wildfires.  A number of Phoenix schools closed last month because a monsoon-like rain caused flooding and power outages.

"Safety, security and comfort are necessities in order to facilitate learning," said Jason Lembke an architect at the Washington, D.C.-based design firm DLR Group who specializes in designing K-12 schools.  "Climate change puts all of these at risk."

One of the most pressing concerns, education experts said, is how the country's rapidly aging school infrastructure, two-thirds of which was built in the early to mid 20th century, will stand up to more intense storms, hotter days, floods and escalating wildfires.

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