Record Heat Takes a Toll in Sweltering Classrooms

If genius truly is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, as Thomas Edison said, then Wednesday’s weather must have made 15-year-old Steve Chung feel like the next William Shakespeare as he sat in his honors English class.

“It’s hotter in the class than out in the sun,” the Granada Hills High School sophomore said, taking a break from his sixth-period course outside in the breeze. “Most of the time I spend wiping the sweat off my face.”

Steve and thousands of other students across the San Fernando Valley sweltered in their classrooms Wednesday as temperatures shot past the century mark on an unseasonably--and some said unreasonably--hot October day. Administrators found themselves shortening class schedules, and teachers groped for ways to keep sluggish pupils alert during the second consecutive day of record heat.

“This is an honors class, and normally they’re very active and talkative,” Granada Hills teacher Elisa Ragus said, her voice hoarse from speaking over the whir of an electric fan. But with the heat, she said, “it’s like pulling teeth to get them to talk.”

The only relief for her students was a modified schedule that allows students to be dismissed early. Several Valley high schools have adopted similar “early day” schedules, with classes beginning at 7:30 a.m. rather than 8.

Scores of elementary schools in the Valley have cut short their days this week because of the heat. Los Angeles Unified School District policy allows individual elementary schools to request shortened days if the mercury hits 95 degrees outside and the hot weather is expected to continue, district spokesman Shel Erlich said.

Many Valley schools have been particularly hard hit by the heat because temperatures are generally higher than those in other parts of Los Angeles and because few campuses have air-conditioned classrooms. Of 171 Los Angeles district schools in the Valley, only 49 have air conditioning in all or most of their rooms, said Douglas Brown, the district’s deputy administrator in charge of facilities and maintenance.

“The state has provided funding for air conditioning only for multitrack schools,” which are in session year-round, said board member Julie Korenstein, who represents the West Valley. Most West Valley schools are not multitrack.

“I’m not sure that everyone is aware how debilitating it is for students and teachers in their classrooms,” she said.

Bob Romero knows. The fourth-grade teacher at Andasol Avenue Elementary School in Northridge has had to exercise some flexibility and patience in dealing with pupils whose concentration gets sapped by the heat.

“In the afternoon, you really have to be creative,” said Romero, who wore shorts to beat the heat. The thermometer on his classroom wall registered 97 degrees Wednesday afternoon, despite the dimmed overhead lights and the valiant efforts of two electric fans--one of which Romero bought himself.

“A lot of them don’t function,” he said of his students. “The kids just don’t perform.”

Romero said he tries to plow through academic subjects in the beginning part of the day to leave the afternoon free for quieter activities, such as writing. But some of his young charges said even writing can be difficult.

“When you come in from recess, you’re sweating all over. It’s kind of hard to write,” Brooks Tinsley, 8, said.

“It gets on the paper,” added 9-year-old Jonathan Saul.

District Deputy Supt. Ruben Zacarias acknowledged that teaching has “to be limited,” but he said learning still goes on in the classroom.

“It’s not the ideal situation obviously for kids or for staff,” he said. “But given the realities of lack of state funding for air conditioning we just have to bear with it. . . . We just have to hang in there.”