WAIKOLOA VILLAGE — When Waikoloa Elementary and Middle School students return to the hottest classrooms on campus Aug. 7, they will have a pleasant surprise: For the first time they will be cooler with the help of three new air conditioning systems.
“The electrician started the ground work on June 19 to put AC in the lower H building classrooms,” Stephanie Landers said, the school’s PTSA president. “They are still waiting on certain breakers that needed to be ordered, but work will hopefully resume soon.”
With only one school on the Big Island selected to receive air conditioning through the state Department of Education this year, Waikoloa School PTSA took matters into its own hands. They funded the AC units and labor themselves.
“We are so excited to be able to move forward and complete this goal,” she said.
Most of PTSA’s money will be used for the electrical updates.
“The three units cost the PTSA more than $15,000,” Landers said. “Once the electrical is done, Oahu Air can go in and do the installation in the H building.”
Over the years, air conditioning units have been added at the school one by one. Fourteen of the 41 classrooms have them currently.
The late summer and fall heat motivated the PTSA to keep AC at the top of their priority list, holding a variety of charity events throughout the past year.
“Funds were raised through a golf tournament last November that raised over $5,000,” she said. “We sold Canoe Discount Cards in October to raise more than $5,200 and we did a Bubble Fun Run at the school last month that raised $1,730. We also had Krispy Kreme sales twice last school year and many other fundraising efforts with Macaroni Grill, Domino’s and Panda Express.”
The next PTSA fundraiser, Paint and Sip, will be from 6-9 p.m. tonight at Daylight Mind Waikoloa.
“The principal told me the H building is the hottest on campus, followed by the I building,” Landers said. “Our goal for the 2017-2018 school year will be to raise funds to have air conditioning installed in all the classrooms in the lower I building.”