LEWISTON — Outside on Wednesday afternoon, the temperature was 82 degrees.
Inside Lewiston High School’s Room C 218, three fans whirled. The shades were partially down. The room was warm.
Wednesday was the first day of summer, but Lewiston students were still in school.
Because of so many snow days this year, the last day of school in Lewiston was Wednesday.
“It’s tiring when you’re sitting in class and it’s so hot,” freshman Molly Chicoine said. “I’d rather be at the beach. I don’t have much motivation since the seniors have left.”
It’s hard to focus, students said.
“It’s so hot out, you just want to be outside,” student Camree St. Hilaire said. “The weather’s so nice.”
Alia Davidson said she prefers to go to school during the winter. When the summer heat arrives, “they send a lot of people home because they get overheated. They just miss more work.”
High School Principal Shawn Chabot joked that last winter before a storm, “I told the students to stop wishing for snow days. It’s great in February, but not so much in June.”
Written on the board in science teacher Tony Leavitt’s class was: “Last day of school!” and “Welcome Summer Solstice!”
His class is on the second floor on the west side. It gets the afternoon sun.
“Yesterday was horrendous, one of the most difficult days of the year,” Leavitt said. Wednesday wasn’t too bad, he said.
Knowing the school year was being extended, he planned student work accordingly, blending the movie “The Martian” with classwork about human sustainability.
At Montello Elementary School, Principal Jim Cliffe said students and staff accepted the longer year.
“The weather helped a lot,” he said. There were a few warm days, “but it wasn’t like a week.”
Lewiston’s summer enrichment programs begin July 5, which means a shorter break for students and teachers.
While many students were happy to be dismissed Wednesday, “we have a number of kids who like school, who count on things like two meals, recess, seeing friends,” Cliffe said. “For them, it’s stressful going into the summer.”
Lisbon and School Administrative District 52, which includes towns of Greene, Leeds and Turner, were also in session on the first day of summer. The last school day for these districts is Thursday.
“We had nine snow days,” said Lisbon Community School Principal Robert Kahler. “Lisbon rarely has that many.” That meant nearly a two-week delay to the last day of school.
His students are doing well, he said.
“It’s easier at the elementary level,” he added.
Younger students are less focused about the calendar and when they got out last year, he said.
Teachers planned lessons to keep students engaged, like rescheduling field trips to the last week, Kahler said.
The school has eight classrooms on the third floor, which worries administrators during hot weather. To remedy that, the district purchased portable air conditioners, Superintendent Rick Green said.
When students leave on Thursday, the staff will go outside and wave goodbye to buses of students driving away.
Until fall, the building grows quiet.
Students are missed, Kahler said.
A school without kids is not a school,” he said.
Alia Davidson in her Lewiston High School freshman science class on Wednesday, the first day of summer. Davidson said she prefers going to school in the colder weather.
Lewiston High School student Molly Chicoine said going to school late in June makes it hard to focus, especially since seniors have graduated and left the building. Like other students, she spent her first day of summer in school.
A “Happy Summer Solstice!” greeting on the board Wednesday in Earth science teacher Tony Leavitt’s classroom at Lewiston High School.
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