Hawaii Still Lags on Cool Classrooms Initiative

LIHUE, Hawaii (AP) — Only about 200 Hawaii classrooms have received air conditioning units as part of Gov. David Ige's $100 million plan announced early last year to cool 1,000 classrooms.

The Hawaii Department of Education released its latest update on the "cool schools" initiative on Feb. 14. The report says 209 classrooms have had air-conditioning units installed and 926 classrooms are in the construction or bidding process, The Garden Island reported (http://bit.ly/2lGxN40 ) Monday.

When Ige laid out the plan in his State of the State Address in January 2016, he said he wanted to cool 1,000 classrooms by the end of the year.

But the project has faced setbacks due to the high number of bids for AC installation, budgetary concerns and the aging infrastructure of some schools, according to the department.

Read more: http://www.usnews.com/news/hawaii/articles/2017-02-21/hawaii-still-lags-on-cool-classrooms-initiative