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Homeowners across America have been advised to dial down the
thermostat and check their doors and windows for insulation leaks.
Big drafty schools must do the same.
One school district in Hanover, Mass. plans to lower classroom
temperatures as far as comfort permits, and many other schools
in surrounding districts have said they will begin covering their
windows with plastic sheeting to lessen the draft.
In order to save on gas, Ohio's Princeton School District canceled
most field trips and will pool athletic teams for competitions
and send only the pep band, not the full band, to away games.
Some students said they are disappointed with the changes.
 Tessa
Dinsdale of Reinbeck, Iowa is unhappy the annual seventh-and-eighth-grade
chorus field trip to Adventureland for the spring was canceled.
"It is something they look forward to, and now they can't
because of gas prices," her mother told the WCF Courier.
But others understand that schools are under intense pressure.
"The things that are the most important are the basics,"
Chelse Garvey of Freedom, Wis. told the Post-Crescent. "A
field trip is nice, but heat is necessary."
The Greencastle-Antrim School District in Greencastle, Pa. considered
canceling classes for the month of January when heat is most expensive
and weather is its coldest, but then schools would not meet the
state required 180 class days.
Schools in Jackson County, Kentucky will shorten the school week
to four days, the Record Herald reported.
Madeira, an Ohio district, is working to consolidate school bus
routes, making students wait longer, but reducing the number of
high school buses from six to four and saving over 500 miles of
travel daily.
"I think that was needed, because the high school busses
are not even half-full most of the time," Madeira PTA President-elect
Candy Hopewell Caesar told the Cincinnati Enquirer. "I think
priorities should be saving taxpayers money because I don't think
they've done that up until now."
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Avon,
Mass. District Superintendent Margaret Fierswyck said she may
have to call a special town meeting to ask for more funds.
American schools and financial aid should be only for legal citizens of the United States. There should be no exceptions to this.
