A student at Madison Elementary approached her principal, Heather Holter, during recess on the first day of school Tuesday with a pressing question: “Where do we get the popsicles?”

Temperatures reached 101 degrees on Tuesday, the first day of school in Spokane Public Schools, during a record-breaking heatwave forecast to last through the week. The high temperatures sent some schools scrambling on what was already a hectic day. But the staff at Madison, Balboa and Indian Trail elementaries - school buildings without air conditioning - spent the days ahead collecting fans, window air conditioning units, and, of course, popsicles to cool off their pupils.

“On the news, we heard that it was going to be probably the warmest summer days that we had when school was starting,” Holter said . “S

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