There’s never a good time for double-digit sub-zero temperatures, but the city’s potentially historic cold snap landed at an especially inconvenient time for Chicago Public Schools teachers and students — the end of the academic quarter.
With Wednesday classes canceled and Thursday’s status still up in the air as of Tuesday afternoon, many high schools have been forced to adjust final exam schedules that will delay report cards.
The end of the second quarter was originally scheduled for Thursday, with students off Friday as teachers were set to enter grades during a professional development day. Report card distribution was initially slotted to begin on Feb. 8.
CPS officials announced late Monday that Tuesday’s after-school activities were canceled along with Wednesday classes.
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For schools like Whitney Young Magnet High School in the West Loop and Jones College Prep downtown, that means final exams — which are spread out over three days — won’t be completed until next Monday at the earliest, or Tuesday if a second school day is canceled. Report cards then could be pushed back up to a week.
Pending approval by the Chicago Board of Education, a makeup school day will be tacked onto the end of the year, making the last day June 19.
The Chicago Teachers Union kept a running tab on Tuesday of complaints from teachers saying sidewalks and parking lots at dozens of schools had not been cleared, and claimed heating issues forced a first-grade class at Burke Elementary on the South Side to wear their coats during class.
CPS officials did not immediately say if any major heating issues had been reported across the district.
The city could hit its lowest temperature on record at minus 27 degrees by early Wednesday, with windchill values plunging even lower.
Officials say they’ll announce a decision by noon Wednesday as to whether or not classes will be held on Thursday.
