After postponing the opening day of school, Cape Girardeau administrators dismissed classes early Monday because of high heat indices.

The heat index is a combination of temperature and humidity. it measures how hot it actually feels to the body. Because of the high temperatures in some buildings, students were dismissed halfway through their first day of school.

Two weeks ago, school administrators postponed the opening day of classes by three days to let contractors finish several renovation projects.

School Superintendent Dr. Dan Tallent said the early dismissal was called after heat indices reached 110 in some classrooms at Washington Elementary and Louis J. Schultz schools.

"If you go outside the breeze is not too bad, but in those buildings with the heat index it was pretty miserable," said Tallent. "You can't really get anything done when it's that hot."

Neither the late start nor early dismissal will affect the school year. Several additional days were built into the school calendar for inclement weather. In addition, a day counts as a full day of school for the district if students attend classes at least three hours, said Tallent.

Recent renovations that included the addition of air conditioning at Jefferson and Franklin elementary schools and Central Junior High School made temperatures in those buildings comfortable for students. Classroom temperatures were higher at Clippard and Alma Schrader elementary schools, but they were bearable because the single-storied buildings are easier to cool, said Tallent.

Schultz and Washington schools are multi-storied and do not have air conditioning, so they generally record hotter temperatures, Tallent said. Neither building is scheduled for renovation in the district's long-range plan, which provides for all classrooms to be air conditioned by 2005. Washington will be closed at the end of the school year; Schultz is scheduled to close by 2005.