Feeling the heat

KAILUA-KONA — Temperatures in Kailua-Kona hit 86 degrees Thursday, but with humidity it felt closer to 90 degrees.

It’s not likely to be much cooler when students return to school Monday, particularly for those attending Kealakehe High School where only six of the school’s 80 classrooms have air conditioning.

And while the lack of air conditioning in classrooms is nothing new for students and teachers at the school, they could usually still escape to the library on occasion for a break from the sweltering heat.

“It was a better learning environment because of the environment,” said Derek Monell, an economics and world history teacher at the school. “It was cool; you could focus. It wasn’t physically miserable.”

But after compressors went down in the library — one in March and one in July — that option’s off the table.

The compressors have already been ordered and the school anticipates them to arrive in the next three to eight weeks, said Department of Education media specialist Lindsay Chambers. In the meantime, the school is trying to get portable air conditioning units.

But that leaves most of the school without units to cool the place down.

Chambers said there are some areas that have air conditioning, such as the band and chorus rooms, the Malie center — that houses the school’s broadcast center and functions as a computer lab — as well as two teachers’ lounges and parts of the administration office. A copy center and four computer labs, including the one in the Malie center, also have air conditioning.

And while Monell said he accepts that much of the issue is outside of immediate local control, students and faculty are left to “suffer through it,” particularly during the hottest part of the year.

“You just know the first six weeks are gonna be miserable,” he said. “It’s not gonna be good. It’s gonna be hot.”

It’s even worse, he said, in some of the classrooms on the second floor, where metal slats on the windows get “cooking hot” from the sun.

“The heat just radiates into the classroom,” Monell said Thursday.

It’s not just uncomfortable, he said, it’s also not a great learning environment.

“Imagine you are 15 years old, it is sixth period … you’re sitting in geometry or world history at 2:30,” he said. “Where is your learning energy at this time?”

The state is currently taking on efforts to cool down 1,000 classrooms by this fall, but it’s an initiative that mostly leaves Big Island schools feeling the heat.

In 2016, Gov. David Ige signed legislation that appropriated $100 million for equipment and installation of air conditioning and other measures to cool down schools. The money is meant to go not just to air conditioning but also “passive cooling” options like ceiling fans, insulation and heat reflective paint.

As of Tuesday, according to the DOE’s Heat Abatement page, 796 air conditioning units have been installed in classrooms.

As part of that project, the department established a priority list of 33 schools.

And ranked at 32 of those 33, Kahakai Elementary School is the only Hawaii Island school to make the list.

Chambers said that priority list was based on a study of classroom temperatures statewide.

And at Kealakehe High, at least, “there are no immediate plans to install AC in any other parts of campus,” she said.