Fans on. Lights off. Windows open.
The teachers at the Washington School in West Haven did what they could Tuesday as they tried to keep their students cool inside a more than 100-year-old building with classrooms that don’t have air conditioning.
“It felt like I was melting in a desert with no water,” fourth grader Zion Avilez said.
Zion’s mom works at the elementary school.
“It’s very hot in there,” Mindy Ayala said. “I’m a lunch lady and it’s hot in that lunch room and the classes are just as bad.”
West Haven Schools decided to dismiss students early on Tuesday, the second day of classes. The district already announced there will be another shortened day on Wednesday.
“It’s disgusting, I’m sweating I can barely breathe, my allergies are acting up, it's nasty,” parent Nikki Trotta said.
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Some parents waited for their children in the shade before students were let out of school at 1:30 p.m.
“They don’t have the ability to have the air circulate, so they’re in those closed walls so they’re probably suffering more than we are,” Trotta said.
Most parents told NBC Connecticut they support the decision to have an early dismissal, but Trotta had a different take.
“I think they should have started school next week,” she said, “they knew this heat wave was coming it was on the forecast.”
Superintendent Neil Cavallaro said student safety comes first when making the difficult decision to shorten the school day.
“Looking at the temperature on Monday for Tuesday and then Tuesday for tomorrow I felt like the best thing we can do is make the call early,” he said.
Around 2 p.m. after dismissal, the school district let NBC Connecticut inside a third-floor classroom at the Washington School. The thermometer reading showed the temperature approaching 90 degrees.
“We probably would have been close to that 100 getting out at 3:25,” principal Twana Shirden said.
It will be the same drill for West Haven parents on Wednesday.
“Got to do it all over again and I feel bad for the parents, I just notified a couple of friends who all work full time and they have to make arrangements to try to get their kids picked up so it’s not fun,” Trotta said.
West Haven High School had early dismissal around noon. Varsity teams were allowed to practice, but they had to be finished by 1:30 p.m. The football team moved practice indoors into the gym.
