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Superintendent: High Humidity in Milton Area Schools Will Delay Start of Classes by Three Weeks

MILTON, Pa. — A school district in Northumberland County is getting an unexpected extension to its summer break and the recent heavy rainfall is being bla...

MILTON, Pa. -- A school district in Northumberland County is getting an unexpected extension to its summer break and the recent heavy rainfall is being blamed.

The Milton Area School District is delaying the start of school by three weeks.

An afternoon of practice for the football and soccer teams is a sure sign that school is resuming, or at least that's what students in the Milton Area School District expected, with classes originally set to start this week.

However, the district is pushing that start date back by three weeks.

“Yeah, Thursday is when we were supposed to go back,” said junior Owen Yoder. “Yeah, I was ready to go back.”

The superintendent says the heavy rains that fell for weeks in central Pennsylvania caused high humidity conditions in all five of the district’s schools, which was discovered on August 7.

Posted on the district's website, school officials say they are “remediating the unique situation and following a multi-step restoration process.”

Now, it's planned for students to return to school on Thursday, September 6.

“I feel like it will be better by then, right?” said Yoder. “Because they'll fix everything up.”

“Very humid, there's carpet damage, wall damage. That's all I know, so three weeks,” said grandmother Marybeth Lily.

The superintendent says a professional cleaning company has been brought in to do an “extensive dehumidification inside all five buildings.” The district hired another company to examine and repair the air conditioning systems in the schools.

Students say they're happy to have this extra time off but know they'll have to make up those days later in the year.

“I wouldn't mind if it was like a week because next summer, it's going to suck because we'll probably last long then go back earlier,” said sophomore Pierce Endinger.

“I didn't want it to be all that long because it's going to take away from all the other breaks,” said Yoder.

“We're going to get out of school a lot later than everyone else, kind of bummed about that,” said freshman Conner Smith.

The district says the school board will have to evaluate whether to do a long-term repair on the aging air conditioning systems or replace them altogether.

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