BUFFALO, Iowa - Paige Pauley, 6, got an extra day of vacation, not by choice. That's because her mom, Courtney Pauley, decided that heating problems at Buffalo Elementary School were bad enough to keep her daughter home from school on Thursday, January 4.
"It's not a situation they need to be in," said Pauley. "She's got a heavy winter jacket that she wears, and she was still cold in that."
The school, which is part of Davenport Community Schools, is having problems with the mechanical system that controls heat. That's leaving some classrooms colder than usual according to district spokesperson Dawn Saul.
Saul said that students in chilly rooms were temporarily moved to warmer ones on Wednesday and Thursday.
"For me, that's not a good learning environment for them," Pauley continued. "The bouncing back and forth from classrooms, you're going from heat to cold, and it's going to make our kids sick."
A contractor is working to fix the problems. The school is also informing parents to dress kids warmly until they restore all of the heat.
Pauley isn't sure if Paige will return to school on Friday. She's upset that she wasn't notified until Thursday.
"There's no reason for this," she concluded. "They should have called us to come get our kids and close the school, so it can be fixed."
Saul said that Buffalo's principal is monitoring the situation.
