LAKEVIEW — After CPS canceled two days of classes because of frigid temperatures, parents of Agassiz Elementary School children in Lakeview were ready for classes to resume Friday morning.
While the National Weather Service reported temperatures of 4 degrees, with a wind chill as low as 12 degrees below zero shortly before 8 a.m., school buses and cars lined up the 2800 block of North Seminary Avenue with parents escorting their children into the building.
Jimmie Cumbie, 48, a parent of an Agassiz student, agreed with CPS' decision to cancel classes Wednesday and Thursday.
"It was probably a good idea, especially for kids that have long commutes. But it's good classes are back in session, today isn't as cold as the past couple of days have been. I mean, you got to get back some time."
On Wednesday temperatures were reported as low as 1 degree at O'Hare Airport with a wind chill of minus 23. Thursday morning, temperature reached 3 degrees below zero, with a wind chill of minus 22, the weather service said.
The frigid temperatures would have made it difficult for Juanita Walker, 49, to get her son to the school in Lakeview had classes not been canceled.
"I live all the way on the West Side, there is no way I would have been able to get here," Walker said. "My car wouldn't start for two days. They did the right thing with closing the schools. I was all for it."
CPS officials said they build a contingency plan into the school calendar year, and will reschedule any missed days due to weather-related cancelations for later this school.
Parent Michael Mascari, 38, agreed with the cancelations.
"The threshold is different," Mascari said. "Kids are being bused all around and a lot of kids are commuting across the city — some for over an hour and a half on public transportation — to get to a magnet school or charter school on the other side of town."
"There are a lot of parents that say, '20 years ago, they never shut down schools.' But it's different now, it's a different landscape."
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