Newton Public Schools has no maximum classroom temperature and no district-wide rule for canceling recess in extreme heat.

That is the central argument of an op-ed published Sunday by Green Newton, the local environmental advocacy group. Four authors — Viella Alkan, Jane Frantz, Ellie Goldberg and Alexander Lee — are calling on the School Committee's Policy Subcommittee to develop a formal extreme heat policy before next spring.

The district also lacks a safety standard for synthetic turf fields, which the op-ed says can reach 140–170°F on sunny days even when air temperature is in the 80s. There is no plan for medically vulnerable students and staff, the authors wrote. Individual schools, coaches and physical education teachers make their own heat calls with no central guidance.

The op-ed names subcommittee Chair Alicia Piedalue and member Victor Lee as the officials who should lead the effort. It says Lee has already requested that extreme heat be placed on the subcommittee's next meeting agenda. No date for that meeting has been announced.

"What's missing is the will to adopt an extreme heat policy before, not after, a crisis occurs," the authors wrote.

The piece points to Holyoke as a Massachusetts district that has already adopted a formal heat policy Newton could use as a model.

Green Newton's push comes as the Newton Teachers Association (NTA) has raised its own alarms. In a June 2026 bulletin, NTA president Ryan Normandin wrote that the union had received "concerning reports of rooms that are dangerously hot" and asked teachers to log classroom temperatures. The op-ed separately noted that the district operates 23 public schools.

The School Committee meets Monday, Sept. 28 at 6:30 p.m. at the Education Center, Room 210, with a virtual option. Extreme heat does not appear as a formal agenda item, according to the published agenda. The op-ed encourages residents to raise the issue during public comment.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) authorized districts to modify schedules for heat in a June 2021 advisory, allowing half days or cancellations on extreme heat days. That guidance remains the most recent state-level directive on the issue.

Superintendent Anna Nolin and General Counsel Jill Murray Grady advise the Policy Subcommittee but have not commented publicly on the proposal.