ARDMORE, OK - Ardmore City Schools students will have a longer summer by two weeks. At a meeting Friday, board members voted to push back the beginning of the school year to August 31.

Although the school year will be shorter, the school day will be longer. In order for students to meet the 1,080-hour requirement. Superintendent Sonny Bates says the decision to push the start date was made for many reasons, but mainly to protect students from record temperatures this summer.

"We were looking at the bus trip and without students, the bus was 114 degrees and with students it was around 16 degrees hotter than that,"

Bates says that by starting later the district will also save a substantial amount of money.