District 300 Cancels School Friday

CARPENTERSVILLE, IL — District 300 has joined a handful of other suburban school districts that have decided to close Friday. The reason for the closure has to do with the severe impact the cold has had on its fleet of buses, superintendent Fred Heid said. The school distruct was having issues with over 20 perecent of its fleet as of late Thursday.

“These 35-plus buses support close to 25 percent of our daily routes,” Heid said.

He said the persistent sub-zero temperatures are to blame.

“Our custodial and maintenance crews have worked diligently to address the issues in our buildings in an effort to ensure that we would be prepared for students to return tomorrow,” he said late Thursday.”Unfortunately, the extreme cold has severely impacted our school bus fleet. Transportation staff have been working around the clock over the last two days in an effort to ensure that our buses would be fully operational. ... Our team will continue working to get these buses back in operation.”

Heid said he didn’t feel comfortable putting the buses back on the road “that may continue to have operational issues.”

The following programs have also been cancelled:

-All morning programs supported by the Boys and Girls Club and/or the Park District will be canceled.

-All-District 300 students who attend out-of-district programs will not have school tomorrow.

-All after-school programs for middle schools are canceled.

-All after-school high school programs (athletics, fine/performing arts, and others) will continue as scheduled unless communicated otherwise by the coach, teacher, or sponsor.

-Middle school activities are canceled.

-Students attending ECC will continue to follow their normal schedule.