All Portland Public Schools to close 3 hours early on Monday due to heat

All students who attend Portland Public Schools will be released from school three hours early on Monday because of forecasted high temperatures, district officials announced Sunday night.

Elementary schools will release students at 11:30 a.m., K-8 schools and high schools at 12:30 p.m. and middle schools at 1 p.m.

All aftercare and childcare services are canceled, the district said in its note to parents.

According to the National Weather Service, temperatures in Portland are expected to hit 85 degrees by noon, and could rise to the mid-90s by the midafternoon.

Only about 15% of the buildings in Oregon’s largest school district have air conditioning, including all six of the high schools that have been modernized in the past 15 years, plus Faubion K-8, Harriet Tubman Middle School, Rosa Parks and Forest Park elementaries and a handful of buildings that offer early childhood education or specialized services.

Building closures due to heat have been

increasingly common

in the past few years, despite district officials’ efforts to cool buildings with overnight ventilation and portable fans.

The massive $1.8 billion

facilities bond

that the district’s voters passed last month originally included at least $190 million to pay for deferred maintenance, like upgrading heating and cooling systems.

But school board members made an

eleventh hour decision

to divert at least $90 million of that total into shoring up schools that are at greatest risk of crumbling in an earthquake. Any

savings that can be wrung

from the at least $1.15 billion in bond funding earmarked for modernizing Cleveland, Wells and Jefferson high schools would also go to seismic upgrades, board members said.

Board members acknowledged that their decision would mean trade-offs, including yearslong delays in installing modern heating, cooling and ventilation systems at many campuses.

— Julia Silverman covers K-12 education for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach her via email at jsilverman@oregonian.com.