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ASSOCIATED PRESS / AUG. 2015
With only open windows and fans to cool the room down, students enter their non air conditioned classroom at Campbell High School in Ewa.
Lawmakers have agreed to invest $100 million to cool hundreds of public school classrooms across the state.
House and Senate negotiators advanced Senate Bill 3126 out of conference committee shortly before tonight’s internal deadline. The measure, which next heads for floor votes in the House and Senate, appropriates general funds, or cash from the general treasury, “for the installation of and equipment for air conditioning, heat abatement, energy efficient lighting, and other energy efficiency measures for schools of the Department of Education.”
The funding is tied to Gov. David Ige’s pledge to cool 1,000 classrooms by the end of 2016. DOE officials say the $100 million will cover the cost of the work.
“We’ll make that money go as far as it can go,” said Donalyn Dela Cruz, spokeswoman for the Department of Education. “Due to energy efficiency measures we have in place, the $100 million will cover the 1,000 classrooms. We’re hoping to go beyond that.”
Air conditioning is one piece of the DOE’s so-called heat abatement program. The department’s goal is for classroom temperatures to be at 76 degrees. Mechanical cooling is planned for classrooms in which heat abatement efforts — such as with ceiling fans, solar-powered vents to draw out hot air, and heat-reflective roof systems — don’t sufficiently bring down the temperature.
Of the 11,820 DOE classrooms across the state, roughly 4,400 classrooms had air conditioning as of last week, according to department data. A total of 49 schools — or 19 percent of DOE schools — have at least 90 percent of their classrooms air-conditioned.
Corey Rosenlee, president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, and a longtime advocate for cooling public school classrooms, called the bill’s passage a victory.
“Today was a huge victory for students across the state who will finally be able to focus on their learning rather than the heat,” Rosenlee, who was traveling Friday, said in a statement. “We are so grateful that lawmakers are helping to improve the learning environment for students across the state by cooling these classrooms. This money is going to allow us to experiment and bring the cost of air conditioning classrooms down,” he said, citing the example of two Molokai schools that installed solar-powered air conditioning this spring.
Earlier versions of the bill had included an additional $30 million in state-backed bonds for the effort, but that was removed during conference negotiations.
$100 million. That pays for all new interiors, equipment, and furniture at schools.
How soon before we see what is all to common in our state and county office buildings – employees bundled up against frigid temperature settings in the 60’s, and where possible, open windows and personal heaters to mitigate the discomfort? All contributing to huge increases in utility related costs, which must include the very expensive capital expenditures for photovoltaics and their associated maintenance.
I think you’re wrong, most of the schools that need AC are old and lack the necessary electrical infrastructure required for AC installation. If it was just a matter of buying a few window units and plugging them in, it would have been done already.
Schools like Campbell, Nanakuli or Waianae will need tens of millions in investments to get all their classrooms air conditioned. Of course the politicians will inevitably direct the needed work to their campaign donors which will further increasing the costs. I think they’ll be lucky to do 2-3 schools with 100 million. State employees are never able do what they say they can do, and they’re never held accountable either because their unions own the politicians.
Energy efficient lighting, other energy efficiency measures, heat abatement? They are spending wildly beyond what was ever talked about.
I’d like to know what schools are being considered for it.
$100,000,000.00 to cool 1,000 classrooms. that’s $100,000.00 per classroom.
someone is getting a huge kickback.
I would imagine a lot of cost is going towards infrastructure – not just air conditioners.
Of course. Most of the schools don’t have enough power available, and not enough power distribution, to handle air conditioning. Doing that also requires sealing up the windows more tightly and such. His knee jerk reaction – instead of doing 30 second worth of research – to most articles is that someone is getting a kickback. Plenty of ignorance here. Plenty.
No, he just knows the politicians are corrupt. Do you honestly think Ige and the party leadership won’t direct the 100 million to their campaign donor?
Their campaign money has to come from somewhere, it’ll be figured into the bid price that’ll be rigged to go to the right contractor.
Exactly. Fishy ain’t it??
About time.
The curious task of economics is to teach People how little they know about what they imagine they can design.” FA Hayek