Baltimore schools began the calendar year with heating outages that left classrooms freezing, and are now starting the school year with classrooms ill-equipped to handle searing heat.
Roughly 70 Baltimore City schools will release students three hours early Tuesday as temperatures exceed 90 degrees. Roughly 10 schools in suburban Baltimore County won't even open their doors.
Tuesday was the first day of the academic year for both systems.
City schools established new guidelines for closing schools after years of extreme temperatures in winter and summer highlighted infrastructure problems. Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh said Tuesday's early closures were due to "years of underinvestment."
Baltimore County schools' chief-of-staff Mychael Dickerson says his district takes it "day by day" when deciding whether schools without air conditioning need to be closed.
Temperatures were in the mid-90s on Tuesday, with a heat index over 100 degrees.
