Dear City Schools Families, Students, Staff Members, and Friends

January 2, 2018

Dear City Schools Families, Students, Staff Members, and Friends,

The very cold weather of the past several days has put a strain on many of our school buildings. With the forecast calling for low temperatures at least into the weekend, I want to update you on the steps we take to address concerns.

Our priority is always to open buildings whenever possible. We want students to have every possible opportunity for teaching and learning, and we also want to make sure that students can get the services and supports that many families rely on -- for example, warm meals and before- and after-school care. This means that we keep school buildings open, even when conditions are sometimes less than ideal. We have many schools with leaky windows and outdated heating systems that have a hard time keeping up.

Throughout the holiday break, and often on weekends or during the evening, our facilities staff regularly visited school buildings to ensure that boilers were functioning and that our buildings were ready to receive students when schools reopened. Our facilities staff are always on call, and are working diligently to repair many problems. Unfortunately, new problems can emerge quickly, and our staff are continuing to respond as quickly as possible to make buildings as comfortable as they can be. In some cases, we rely on principals to relocate or combine classes when specific areas of a building have heat or water problems. Only when problems affect large portions or all of a building do we make the decision to close the school.

With the unusually long cold spell we’re experiencing, I ask for your patience and your support. To address facilities concerns as efficiently as possible, school principals are designated as points of contact for reporting issues to the district office. Please let your principal know about heating or water concerns in your building, so that he or she can contact the right staff members in our facilities department -- and get the quickest possible attention, based on the severity of the issue. I am also directing school leaders to relax uniform policies, so that students can dress appropriately for the temperatures in their classrooms.

Finally, please make sure that your school has your correct emergency contact information on file, so that you will receive phone calls or text messages in the event that we must close your school. You can also follow the district on Twitter and Facebook to receive announcements about closures or delays as soon as they are made.

Thank you for your support of our students and our schools.

Sincerely, Alison Perkins-Cohen Chief of Staff