Fans were blowing, the door ajar and a wall of louver windows swung wide open. And yet by 11 a.m. on a recent Monday, the temperature inside Jacqueline Kubo Luna’s classroom had already climbed past 80 degrees.
“This whole wing, we just get it really bad,” Luna said later that morning, gesturing around her muggy room at Chiefess Kapiolani Elementary School. “Definitely the windows have to always be open. If they’re not, it’s just scorching in here.”
Luna, a longtime Kapiolani second-grade teacher, is well prepared. She’s got a roll of paper towels on hand to stop frequent, heat-triggered nose bleeds. She’s contrived tricks to grab students’ attention — such as clapping loudly or chiming, “Wake up and smell the cocoa!” — when they slump over in a mid-afternoon humidity daze.
And when inside temperatures climb into the 90s or even triple digits, she’ll lead her 19 students outside.
“We’ll just go sit out in the shade, where there’s a pocket of breeze,” she said. “Just to get out of the classroom. Because it’s just too hot.”
Luna’s Kapiolani classroom is among thousands in Hawaii that lack school-wide air conditioning. For years, the state Department of Education has been working to ease the problem — in the past five years alone, the DOE has spent nearly $50 million on various heat-relief projects around the state.
But many worry the problem’s getting worse. Last summer, strong El Nino conditions caused record-breaking temperatures throughout the state, and in turn prompted widespread public outcry for cooler schools. This year, temperatures aren’t expected to climb quite as high, but forecasters are still predicting a hotter-than-normal summer.
As summer nears, the state is mulling ways to fast track various heat-relief projects for schools that need it the most. The DOE says more than 100 people are currently “in the field” evaluating schools, and maintenance teams are “working weekends” to complete cooling projects in sweltering portable classrooms. AC projects that already have been funded “are expedited,” according to the DOE.
More than 360 portables statewide now feature heat reflective material and 137 have ceiling fans, the department says, and last summer, it purchased 402 portable air-conditioning units for schools with “the hottest classrooms.” Two of those schools were on the Big Island — Hilo Union and Kahakai elementary schools.
“It’s always going to come down to what we’re capable of doing with funding,” DOE spokesman Brent Suyama said. “We get out to as many schools and do as many things as we can … (our selections are) really weighted on, what the outside temperature is like on that campus … we look for the hottest classrooms.”
Lawmakers also are mulling a bill that would appropriate $130 million to install air conditioning in 1,000 classrooms — among a list of roughly 32 schools considered most in-need — by the end of the calendar year.
Kahakai Elementary School in Kona is the only Big Island school included in those 32 schools considered to be the hottest, however. Most are on Oahu and Maui.
The problem with systemwide AC, Suyama said, is the cost. Estimates show installing AC in every school in the state would run up a $1.7 billion price tag. The cost per classroom can run as high as $30,000. Meanwhile, the department’s yearly electric bill runs around $48 million, which increases each time new systems are added.
And then there are other problems which make AC challenging — such as aging infrastructure. Schools in Hawaii are 58-years-old, on average, Suyama said, and many aren’t equipped to handle electrical requirements of modern AC systems.
“We do electrical upgrades as we can, but, (in an old school) you might have only four outlets (per classroom),” he said. “So they’re not really made for today’s electronic needs … where you have more smart boards, computers and tablets and all those things are demands on the electrical system … with AC there’s a lot of competing electrical needs.”
At Kapiolani, which is a nearly 100-year-old building, three classrooms have air conditioning: two computer labs to protect the equipment and a special needs classroom. The school has largely taken its own measures to beat the heat. Classrooms throughout the school were recently outfitted with wall-mounted fans, funded with a mix of school funds and money from parent-teacher organizations. A physical education teacher at Kapiolani spearheaded fundraising for absorbent chamois cloths this past year, which students wet throughout the day to cool themselves off.
“They are fabulous,” Luna said. “They help us a lot. But it’s not a long-term solution.”
Waiakea High School, where 5 percent of the campus has air conditioning, has taken similar measures. The school spent more than $20,000 to outfit classrooms with ceiling fans this past year, Principal Kelcy Koga said, using a mix of school funds and money from its PTSA.
“When school is that hot, it’s hard to concentrate,” Koga said. “ … This year was really out of the ordinary, and we weren’t used to it.”
Luna’s students say they have trouble concentrating, too. Seven-year-old Maya Enos said the heat makes her “fussy and grouchy.” It’s mostly a problem in the summer, Maya said, but also on “really hot days” throughout the year.
“I just put my head down or I want to lay on the table because it’s so hot,” Maya said. “I get worn out. I’m lazy and I don’t pay attention that much.”
Seven-year-old Aurie Napihaa said she simply gets fatigued, and, not to mention, migraines.
“One time, I had a serious headache, and I was so sleepy I feel asleep,” Aurie said.
And Landon Chinn, 7, said he gets sweaty. When it gets really hot, he also gets nosebleeds.
“I’d rather be cold,” Landon said. “Being cold, it’s my thing.”
For teachers, the biggest worry is instruction — when it’s hot, it’s harder to teach, they say.
“It takes a lot of time away from learning because I have to manage a classroom,” Luna said. “Especially teaching Common Core now, because (the curriculum) is so stringent, they have to pay attention. But it’s so hot, they just can’t.”
