When I was a kid (back in the mid'70s through mid'80s) we started the day after Labor Day (the first Tuesday in September) and ended the end of June. Now, some local suburban districts are starting the week before Labor Day, but they're ending the first week of June.
(I still can't figure out how starting a week early, but ending three weeks early "increases" days on the school calendar, as advertised. Then again, I'm not conversant in school administration voodoo.
)
Many of the school buildings in Philadelphia itself are old brick and/or stone structures with flat roofs no air conditioning and August temperatures can reach into the mid '90s (F) for days on end. These buildings hold the heat like an oven. (A news story years ago measured the temperature in one of these buildings in the summer and a classroom on the top floor was coming in at well over 90F.) Not a good environment for anyone's well being.
Air conditioning these old buildings is cost prohibitive. There's well over 100 buildings at a couple hundred thousand dollars a pop! So they all stay on the day after Labor Day schedule -- and it can still be unbelievably hot in there until mid to late September. I remember as a kid the occasional classmate being sent to the nurse with nausea and dizziness from the heat in the beginning of the school year. It always seemed to get stinking hot right after school started up.
