Wednesday was only the third day of school in Elmhurst, but already students there had learned a valuable lesson: how to keep their water bottles cold in the extreme heat.
"I freeze my water bottle at night at home, drink some at school, then the rest melts," said Carrie Schreiber, a 5th grader at Elmhurst's Field Elementary School. "I refill it at lunch."
"I wrap a towel around it to keep my desk from getting wet," said a classmate, Erin Douglass.
Wednesday's humid temperatures and 95-degree heat index were hard to take in schools without air-conditioning, as districts throughout the suburbs enacted brand-new heat emergency plans that allowed everything from a shortened schedule to skimpier school clothes.
Most schools simply relaxed their rules, allowing water bottles at desks, carting in more fans to stuffy rooms and encouraging teachers to give students more breaks.
Other schools juggled class schedules so students would be in air-conditioned rooms whenever possible. Many after-school activities were postponed or rescheduled for cooler evening hours.
But with memories fresh of this summer's record number of heat-related deaths, many suburban school officials said they were taking no chances when it came to protecting children.
"Given all the tragedies in the Chicago area and the situation at Mt. Carmel (where a student collapsed during a hot day at football practice and later died), it caused everyone to think and rethink and take precautions," said Arnold Drzonek, superintendent for Tinley Park's Kirby School District 140.
Drzonek's district and dozens of others were prompted this summer to write up official emergency heat plans. The new rules, similar to those for snow days, were mailed to parents in recent weeks.
The guidelines led to early closings at Sandburg High School in Orland Park and Stagg High School in Palos Hills where such action is called for when the heat index is over 95.
In districts such as Naperville Unit School District 203, where all 21 buildings are air-conditioned, outdoor heat doesn't affect studies.
In others, such as Elmhurst Unit School District 205, most classrooms are not air-conditioned. But the schools are taking extra measures to battle the soaring temperatures.
Letting children go home early was one option. But Berardo DeSimone, regional school superintendent, has relayed to all 43 DuPage districts a legal opinion from the Illinois State Board of Education that an official school day requires at least five hours of instruction.
Districts usually put five extra days in their calendars for emergency closings, but they generally come during the winter.
Supt. Joan Raymond said District 205 discarded the notion of closing on extremely hot days.
"It would only play havoc with working parents," she said. "Children would have nowhere to go."
Instead, Raymond and her principals have worked out what they believe is a common-sense approach to surviving in-school temperatures in the 90s.
Although all school corridors have drinking fountains, Elmhurst parents have been asked to give their children filled water bottles to take to class. The reasoning is that youngsters will have water at hand and won't have to ask repeatedly togo to the drinking fountain. Bottles usually are empty by lunchtime, but then refilled.
Teacher Karen Westendorf took her 5th graders at Field School outside under a shade tree Wednesday morning for a reading lesson.
When Edward Grove, a Field custodian, arrived at 6:30 a.m., he went from classroom to classroom opening the windows. Jeff McManus, another custodian, was sent to hardware stores to buy fans.
Ordinarily, classes are held in the school's air-conditioned learning resource center in the basement for special projects. But Principal Beverly Sheahan asked teachers to take turns teaching regular lessons there Wednesday so every one of Field's 340 students would have some time in a cool environment.
One DuPage school that closed early Wednesday was Concord Lutheran Elementary School in Addison, sending 200 pupils home at 11:30 a.m., halfway through the school day.
"After watching the children trying to learn in warm and humid conditions, we decided to close," said Principal Edward Grube.
But with a Thursday forecast of lower temperature and less humidity, Grube said he expected a return to a full day of school.
Schools would have an easier time with the weather if they adjusted their schedules to Mother Nature's, according to Paul Merzlock, forecaster for the National Weather Service in Romeoville.
"The old school year of Labor Day to Memorial Day is as in sync as you could get with the climate," he said. "It's unusual to have 90-degree days after Labor Day."
Although Wednesday's heat index reached 95, temperatures are expected to cool into the 80s Thursday, Merzlock said.
"(Wednesday) should be the last really oppressive day of the summer," he said.