Haze filled the sky surrounding the MFS campus at the end of the school day on June 7, 2023. Photo by Elina Shah ’24.
Just before 6:45 AM on June 8, MFS announced their decision to cancel school for grades 8-12 for the final day of the school year. The closure is due to hazardous air quality, which de la Torre shared via the Ruvna messaging system.
This unprecedented cancellation was even more impactful to MFS students due to COVID-19-related cancellations, including end-of-year trips, in the previous three years.
Air quality ratings of 300 PPM (Parts Per Million, count of fine particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter per million samples of air) or more are considered hazardous to human health, and at the time of sending the original message at 9:00 PM, Moorestown, NJ was around 290 PPM according to The Weather Channel. Multiple major news sources stated that the high rating was due to several wildfires in Canada.
Each pollutant carries its own unique harm to human health. In this case, smoke is the main pollutant. Too much smoke inhalation can impact the human lung, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency: “The biggest health threat from smoke is from fine particles, also called fine particulate matter or PM2.5. These microscopic particles can get into your eyes and respiratory system, where they may cause burning eyes, runny nose, and illnesses, such as bronchitis.”
The Upper School had planned outdoor field trips prior to the air quality issues. The classes of 2024, 2025, and 2026 were scheduled to spend a day on the boardwalk and beach of Wildwood, NJ, while the class of 2023 was scheduled to spend their day at the Six Flags amusement park in Jackson, NJ, the site of another recent blaze.
The Weather Channel’s Air Quality Index map at 10:00 PM (left) and 11:00 PM (right) on June 7, 2023. The Air Quality Index Moorestown, NJ reached over 300 PPM by the late evening.
As the evening of June 7 progressed, more students and families anticipated a message from MFS’s administration addressing the air quality concerns. Just after 9:00 PM, Head of School Julia de la Torre announced a potential closure to MFS for grades 8-12, the grade levels with upcoming field trips, on June 8, 2023, the last day of school.
Following the announcement, Julia Brown ’24 commented, “[The announcement] just makes sense … Keeping everyone in mind, it’s a safer bet [to cancel the trips].”
The original announcement stated, “We will wait until the morning to make decisions about off-campus Middle and Upper School field trips so we can best assess air quality data and the most up-to-date advisories. In the event that outdoor field trips for 8th – 12th grade students cannot take place as planned, school for these grades may be canceled.”
The possibility of a closure appeared to be growing larger each hour. By 10:00 PM, Moorestown reached hazardous levels for air quality, recording 301 PPM at that time, and by 11:00 PM, Moorestown reached 445 PPM. The hazardous rating remained into the morning.
Plume Labs, a company specializing in measuring air quality, states that their rating, which is separate from the rating from The Weather Channel, denotes, “Effects can be immediately felt by people at risk. Even healthy people may show symptoms for short exposures.”
In the end, MFS made the call to cancel school for grades 8-12 out of safety concerns, and in the message at 6:45 AM, de la Torre noted that “It is necessary to cancel today’s end-of-year-trips.”
NOTE: Article updated 6/8/23 at 3:05 PM to add information about end-of-year trip cancellations since 2019.
References
Jackson, S. (2023, June 7). NJ Forest Fire Service: 82-acre wildfire in Jackson Twp. now 100% contained. 6abc Philadelphia. https://6abc.com/jackson-township-wildfire-new-jersey-forest-fire-today-ocean-county-east-commodore-boulevard/13354217/
Moorestown, NJ Weather Forecast and Conditions – The Weather Channel | Weather.com. (n.d.). The Weather Channel. Retrieved June 7, 2023, from https://weather.com/weather/today/l/Moorestown+NJ?canonicalCityId=efd3455ffc6f45daf349f206cda18cb30eda24c58cda5391aa2c14490133978e
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2013, May 28). Wood Smoke and Your Health. Www.epa.gov. https://www.epa.gov/burnwise/wood-smoke-and-your-health#:~:text=The%20biggest%20health%20threat%20from
What is an Air Quality Index (AQI)? (n.d.). Air.plumelabs.com; AccuWeather. Retrieved June 7, 2023, from https://air.plumelabs.com/learn/en/what-is-an-aqi
