DELAWARE, Ohio — Students at Rutherford B. Hayes High School in Delaware were dismissed early on Tuesday because of a lack of heat in the building.
A spokesperson for Delaware City Schools said that when the staff arrived at the school in the morning, several teachers reported that their rooms felt colder than usual.
In a separate incident, according to the district spokesperson, one classroom had a coil freeze and break in the room's individual ventilation unit. This caused ice to accumulate inside parts of the classroom. The district said they immediately moved those students to another classroom.
The district says as the morning progressed the building did not get any warmer and it was determined the boiler was not operational. Without a definitive timeline to get the boiler running again, the school determined they could not keep students in the building for the remainder of the day.
At approximately 9:25 a.m., the district started making plans for an early dismissal. Students were dismissed at 9:55 a.m. and bus riders were picked up around 10:10 a.m.
The district said heat inside the school was restored around 12:30 p.m. Classes are expected to resume Wednesday.
Temperatures in the area were in the single digits Tuesday morning. Several school districts in central Ohio either closed or delayed start times by two hours Tuesday morning because of snow and the cold weather.
Frigid temperatures are forecasted to be in the single digits again Tuesday nights and wind chills could make temperatures feel like it is well below zero.