With Limited Air Conditioning, Joppa View Swelters

Due to an ongoing bout of extreme heat, county officials announced that schools would close three hours early on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

"The kids generally like school—it's for health reasons that they want to go home," said Jaclyn Cross-Prettyman, an art teacher at . She helped shepherd children onto their buses Tuesday afternoon.

Founded in 1990, Joppa View is one of the community's newest schools. Still, like many area schools, it lacks air conditioning throughout the entire building.

"We only have air conditioning in the new addition, so only the fifth graders have air conditioning," Cross-Prettyman said. "It actually seems hotter inside the building than outside of it."

Parents are aware of the school's inability to keep students cool, said Carolyn Burke, who picked up her children, kindergartner Julia and third-grader Jake, after Tuesday's closure.

Burke said she anticipated that schools would close early. "I checked the news at 5:30 and heard nothing," she said. "I was a little miffed when they didn't announce it until after 9 a.m., after I got to work."

Having taken the afternoon off from her job at a Towson publishing company, she said they may set up the backyard pool.

"But that's only a lucky, lucky chance," Julia said.