Struggling to Put Air Conditioning in Classrooms

Classrooms across the country are in need of air conditioning. Students need the proper conditions to get the most out of their academic experience. Consider a recent article for West Hawaii Today titled “DOE struggles to balance costs with need for air-conditioning in classrooms.”

Kirsten Johnson of West Hawaii Today writes, “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.”

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