No School? Why?-- Part 1: Reasons School Gets Called Off in Chicago

From the January 11, 2015, Chicago Tribune by Stephan Benzkofer

OVER YEARS, CLASSES HAVE BEEN CALLED OFF FOR A VARIETY OF REASONS

Chicago-area schools were called off last week because of the brutally cold temperatures, leading to the inevitable oldsters stories about walking through those ten-foot snowdrifts with no shoes on our twenty mile walk to school during a raging blizzard with temperatures down to -40 degrees.

Schools have been called off for a lot of reasons besides weather in the Chicago area, though.

Here are some of them:

WEATHER

Snow is the biggest culprit, but there are other Mother Nature reasons.

Bitter cold temps shut down many Chicago and suburban schools Feb. 8, 1933, but most reopened the next day.  Cicero and Forest Park, however, were exceptions.

Freezing temperatures on Jan. 24, 1963, also shut down many suburban schools but not Chicago because they already had the day off for teachers' marking day.

A HEAT WAVE in September 1927 shuttered schools for two days.  Students unfortunate to attend 600 portable school rooms with corrugated iron roofs had it even worse in their "veritable bake ovens," got an extra half day  to cool off.

I remember hearing on the news that Round Lake schools were going to have early dismissal in 1995 because of heat during several June days as we made up for days missed because of the 38 day strike in the fall of 1994.

I Still Hate Snow.  --DaCoot