OXFORD – Oxford Hills School District Superintendent Rick Colpitts said he will decide Thursday whether to cancel after-school activities as the fourth day of a record-setting heat wave continues.
Outdoor sports were either canceled or severely limited Wednesday afternoon, and elementary school recesses were either held inside in air-conditioned schools or outside in non air-conditioned schools as the temperature soared into the 90s.
“The principals have been super in trying to monitor the children,” Colpitts said. “I can’t remember a school opening with four days of 90-degree heat.”
Colpitts said his concern for Thursday was the possibility of unhealthy air quality.
“We’re all facing the same issue,” he said of the superintendents across the state who have been dealing with decisions about closing schools or limiting activities in the heat wave.
Colpitts said he talked with Dr. Dora Mills, director of the State Bureau of Health, on Wednesday and David Connerty-Marin, spokesman for the Maine Department of Education, about the heat situation in schools. Their advice, he said, was that officials should cancel athletic activities if the heat index is above 95.
“Today it was around 98 or 99,” Colpitts said of the index which is based on temperature and humidity.
Colpitts said Paris and Harrison elementary schools and parts of Oxford Hills middle school and Oxford Hills Comprehensive High school are air-conditioned. However, others such as Rowe Elementary School in Norway, are not.
Children at the Rowe school had an extended recess outdoors Wednesday because the air was cooler than inside, Colpitts said. Hannaford Supermarket in Oxford sent the school 462 Popsicles for the children to help keep them cool.
“We’re very grateful to them,” Colpitts said.
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