Dozens of Philly schools will dismiss early Tuesday and Wednesday because of forecasted hot weather

Just a few days into the 2024-25 year, Philadelphia School District officials announced they will close dozens of schools three hours early on Tuesday and Wednesday because of predicted sizzling temperatures.

Temperatures are due to hit 90 on Tuesday for the first time in three weeks, and the air is expected to be become progressively steamier during what forecasters say will be a short-lived hot spell.

On Wednesday, readings could shoot into the mid-90s, the National Weather Service says, with oppressive humidity and heat indexes as high as 105. It is expected to be cool enough to learn again on Thursday, with highs back in the 80s.

The news came after Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. and Mayor Cherelle L. Parker formally welcomed city students back to school.

» READ MORE: Philly’s 113,000 students go back to school

While most district schools are now fully or mostly climate-controlled, 63 of the district’s 218 schools — about 28% — do not have adequate air-conditioning.

Those schools will dismiss three hours early, while the rest of the district’s students will not have their learning interrupted because of hot weather.

“We realize that early dismissals, especially during the first week of school, can present challenges for many families,” Oz Hill, the district’s acting chief deputy superintendent of operations, said in a message to parents. “Please know that these decisions, which we do not make lightly, are always made with the safety of our students and staff as our top priority.”

While the district air-conditioned eight schools with units donated by Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts in recent months, officials have said they won’t be able to fully cool all district schools until 2027. The average district building is nearly 75 years old, and many don’t have adequate electrical service to support whole school air-conditioning.

» READ MORE: Philly schools won’t be fully air-conditioned until 2027. Here’s why.

On Monday morning, Watlington, U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D., Philadelphia), American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, and others gathered at Finletter Elementary in Olney to call for greater federal investment to handle school infrastructure issues.

A few years ago, the system’s heating and cooling issues became immediately apparent when Boyle toured Lowell Elementary, another district school.

“I will never forget being in one classroom that was so hot in the middle of the winter day you had all the windows open because it felt like a sauna in there,” Boyle said. In the hallways, people wore coats because it was so cold.

Philadelphia schools have an estimated $7 billion in unmet facilities needs.

“The reality is, it’s only Washington, D.C., that has those kinds of resources to meet the enormity of that challenge,” Boyle said.

» READ MORE: Even in many air-conditioned Philly classrooms, it’s sweltering: How did it get this way?

Facilities challenges exist across the U.S., Boyle said, but are particularly acute in large, old cities like Philadelphia, where the public school system has been educating students for over 200 years.

“We have more needs than those Sunbelt cities that have only been built in the last two generations,” Boyle said.

Finletter, a K-8, has air-conditioning in classrooms, but its common spaces — hallways, the gym, the auditorium — are not air-conditioned. Gathering in the auditorium, the politicians and labor leaders present began visibly sweating.

Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Arthur Steinberg noted that Monday’s predicted high, 87, was cooler than the temperatures coming Tuesday and Wednesday.

Without fully air-conditioned buildings, “it just totally discombobulates the learning process and it’s something we really have to go on and fix,” Steinberg said.

Inquirer reporter Anthony R. Wood contributed to this article.