Novato Unified to have minimum day Friday due to heat wave

NOVATO, Calif. (KGO) -- Public schools in Novato will close early on Friday due to the heat wave. All public elementary schools will dismiss students at noon on Friday, and all secondary schools will dismiss students at 12:45 p.m., according to Novato Unified School District officials.

There are eight campuses in the Novato School District that do not have air conditioning.

As kids head into Olive Elementary School in Novato, parents aren't just giving advice on behaving and listening. They're also telling them to stay cool,

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"I told him to drink lots of water, if you don't feel good go to the office call, I will be right here to pick you up," said Lisa Wagenhurst, grandmother.

That's because this school doesn't have air conditioning and this heat wave has parents very worried.

"When I come in the afternoons to pick them up, it's very hot. I volunteer in a classroom, it is tiring to be n that heat," said Alison Blume, mother.

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Even the kids say the classrooms get too hot for them to concentrate.

"When you learn it gets too hot and then it just poops out of your brain," said a student.

"It's no different than what we have this time every year. We have three or four heat waves during the school year it happens, it happens," said Elizabeth Sesma-Olinyk, principal.

The principal says the teachers will lower their blinds and lights like they always do when it gets hot and they will get through it. But parents say the annual heat waves are changing.

"It's hotter than when I was a kid I went here and it never got this hot," said Wagenhurst.

Parents are ready to fight for air conditioning or industrialized fans; they want a new bond measure to pay for it. The principal says renovations are coming to Olive Elementary like a new cafeteria and office.

"We had many other needs we felt was more important than air conditioning, air conditioning was actually at the bottom of our list of needs," said Sesma-Olinyk.

That won't stop some parents from fighting- for air conditioning. The short term answer though is in the freezer, the PTA is buying popsicles tomorrow for the entire school.

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