The agency recently shut down its last cooling initiative, according to a state audit released this month, and is still spending millions to salvage broken systems from a failed $100 million program launched nearly a decade ago.
The Office of the Auditor’s Report No. 25-09, published in August, paints a stark picture of wasted money, poor planning and unmet promises. Auditors concluded that Hawaii’s classrooms are now in much the same position they were in before the $100 million windfall: hot, under-ventilated and in many cases dependent on aging portable buildings never meant to last.
Hawaii’s schools average 61 years old, and more than 50 are over a century old. Deferred maintenance and outdated electrical systems continue to complicate cooling efforts, the audit said.
State Auditor Leslie Kondo, who signed the report, said DOE’s failures show how the rush to meet political goals can waste taxpayer dollars while leaving the underlying problems unsolved. Despite the enormous investment, students are still trying to learn in stifling conditions.
The audit underscores an uncomfortable reality for parents and teachers — nearly 10 years and more than $120 million later, Hawaii still has no reliable plan to cool its classrooms.
DOE Superintendent Keith Hayashi told Kondo in an Aug. 1 response letter that the department has been working to improve its approach.
Hayashi acknowledged the program’s difficulties in his letter to Kondo, but he emphasized that the audit’s review ended before some corrective measures were underway.
Hayashi noted that “virtually none of the key managers involved during the review period remain with the program,” pointing to staff turnover as one reason for the lack of consistency in record-keeping and execution. He also stressed that DOE faced the challenge of implementing the Legislature’s $100 million appropriation under “exceptionally tight timelines.”
While the audit cited DOE’s decision earlier this year to rescind schools’ authority to execute contracts — effectively shutting down the School Directed AC program, which was launched in 2019 to give principals and communities more say in cooling projects after the $100 million initiative faltered — Hayashi wrote that the department had already “initiated proactive measures to enhance procedures” before the audit’s fieldwork concluded in 2024.
A DOE spokesperson on Monday told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the School Directed Air Conditioning program remains in place but with modifications, with schools now expected to fund new window units while working with the Office of Facilities and Operations on electrical assessments, project management and installation. The spokesperson added that a number of projects are either underway or funded for the next two fiscal years — including work at Kapa ‘a Middle, Kaimuki High, Holomua Elementary, Royal Elementary, King Intermediate and Castle High — though many require major electrical upgrades before air conditioning can be installed.
In the meantime, DOE is expanding the use of high-capacity fans to provide immediate relief.
In a separate statement to the Star-Advertiser on Monday, Hayashi said that the “Department acknowledges the findings of the auditor’s report and the serious issues identified. The initiative was launched with urgency and good intentions — responding to real heat challenges affecting our students and staff — but was undermined by flawed execution, inconsistent oversight, and ineffective systems at the time. We are taking meaningful steps to improve and rebuild confidence in how we serve our schools and communities. Current efforts reflect a much more deliberate and accountable approach, with projects prioritized based on facility condition, climate, funding, and infrastructure readiness.”
The report examined the 2016 “Cool Classrooms Initiative,” which was meant to quickly cool 1,000 classrooms in response to growing public outcry. At the time, parents and teachers described classrooms at Campbell High School and other campuses as unbearable, with indoor temperatures climbing into the 90s and even 100s.
Students formed a group called “Fahrenheit 73” to raise money for their own air conditioners. The issue became so visible that then-Gov. David Ige made it a top priority, telling lawmakers in his State of the State address, “Students will fail to learn the lessons of their teachers when temperatures soar to over 100 degrees.”
In May 2016, lawmakers approved $100 million for the initiative, and the DOE was ordered to act quickly. But under pressure to deliver results without driving up electric bills, the department rushed into complex solar-powered systems using photovoltaic panels and battery storage. These were marketed as a way to bypass costly electrical upgrades and keep energy costs down. Instead, they proved expensive, fragile and often ineffective.
Some parents like Ryan Chow, a Honolulu father of two, admit that they do not know what their children’s classrooms feel like during the day but say that the audit is troubling because of how much public money was spent.
Chow said he could accept that DOE did not want to burden schools with higher electric bills, but the end result was just as costly. He pointed out that the millions sunk into experimental systems could have gone into building new classrooms or repairing old ones.
Chow added that even as someone who is not inside the schools, it’s hard not to question the DOE’s decision-making when students are still suffering.
“I’m not in the classrooms, so I don’t know exactly what it’s like for the kids, but when I hear $100 million was spent and it still didn’t fix the problem, that’s alarming. That’s our tax dollars, and we expect it to be used wisely,” he said. “When government spends that kind of money and there’s nothing to show for it, it makes you lose trust. If this is how they handle schools, what about everything else?”
Auditors found DOE ultimately spent nearly $105 million on heat abatement at 53 schools where 838 classrooms were air-conditioned, averaging $125,000 per classroom. At some campuses, the costs soared far higher: Waipahu Intermediate ended up spending nearly $1 million to cool just three portable classrooms, averaging more than $314,000 each. By comparison, a new standard portable classroom costs about $144,000 to build.
Auditors noted that the results often disappointed. The systems were designed to run for just five hours a day — about 80 percent of instructional hours — and to keep temperatures between 75 and 78 degrees.
Teachers quickly discovered that classrooms became stifling again in the afternoon once the units shut off, the audit said. In some cases, auditors found that DOE made matters worse by sealing jalousie windows with plexiglass to improve efficiency, cutting off the natural trade winds that had provided some relief.
“It’s unbearable,” one DOE engineer admitted to auditors about the plexiglass-lined rooms.
The technology itself was prone to failure, auditors observed.
DOE staff acknowledged to auditors that they were installing “experimental” hybrid systems they had never worked with before. At Castle High School, solar panels were mounted on portable classrooms located directly beneath monkeypod trees, where they produced less than 20 percent of their intended output.
A DOE engineer sent to troubleshoot problems in 2018 was quoted in the audit as finding panels covered in leaves and debris, saying, “If this is your house, probably somebody would stop, right? At some point. But in the end, everything was installed.”
Auditors concluded that DOE also paid millions for strategies that were never carried out. Consultants had recommended a multi-pronged approach, including shade trees, reflective paint and ceiling fans. DOE contracted for many of these passive cooling designs, but they were shelved when money ran out.
In some cases, the auditors noted that DOE spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on design work for campuses that were later found to already be air-conditioned. At Waipahu Intermediate, DOE paid more than half a million dollars for designs that were never implemented. State auditors estimated more than $1 million in design plans were simply wasted.
Auditors said that DOE’s record-keeping compounded the problems. They said that DOE could not provide them with a consistent tally of how many classrooms were actually cooled or with final costs for many projects.
Auditors found that the department’s own reports over the years listed anywhere from 958 to more than 1,300 cooled classrooms across 53 to 61 schools. DOE was unable to produce contract completion notices for 15 projects, leaving millions of dollars in spending unverifiable to auditors.
“DOE must be accountable for its spending, which it is not without a complete and comprehensive accounting,” the audit said.
The audit also showed that DOE’s costly systems quickly began breaking down. From 2018 to 2024, DOE logged nearly 1,800 maintenance requests, the audit found.
Auditors said that contractors often brushed off complaints by citing the systems’ five-hour runtime limit, and schools struggled to diagnose problems on their own. They found evidence of missing insulation, exposed wires, faulty batteries and gecko damage. Some systems were plagued by fundamental design flaws, such as panels installed on leaky roofs or shaded by trees.
The audit found that DOE has spent an additional $3.3 million to $6 million trying to repair and salvage the systems, including connecting some to the electrical grid to improve performance.
But with the batteries now nearing the end of their lifespan, officials told auditors many units may soon need to be retired altogether.
In 2019, the DOE tried again with a different approach called the “School Directed AC” program, which gave principals and communities more authority to pursue their own air-conditioning projects, sometimes through donations or fundraising. DOE arranged electrical assessments but otherwise stepped back.
A former administrator said the program grew out of parents “dropping off window AC units at the curb” out of frustration.
But auditors found the program was so loosely structured and poorly tracked that it was impossible to evaluate. Schools often failed to report their AC inventories, DOE’s project-tracking website lacked updates, and the department had no reliable data. During the audit’s fieldwork late last year, DOE quietly rescinded the schools’ authority to sign construction contracts, effectively ending the program. Officials said a new policy would be forthcoming, but none had been announced by the time the report was released in August.
Timeline Department of Education’s heat abatement efforts through the years:
—2013 –2014: Teachers and students speak out about overheated classrooms, with temperatures topping 100 degrees. Students at Campbell High launch the “Fahrenheit 73” campaign to raise money for AC units.
—Jan. 2016: Then-Gov. David Ige pledges to cool 1,000 classrooms by year’s end in his State of the State speech.
—May 2016: Legislature approves $100 million (Act 47) for the “Cool Classrooms Initiative.” DOE prioritizes solar-powered AC systems to avoid higher electricity bills.
—2016-2017: DOE rushes to install cooling systems, many in portable classrooms. Costs soar to an average of $125, 000 per classroom. Teachers complain the units only run for five hours a day and classrooms are still hot.
—Aug.-Sept. 2017: Ige declares the goal met, saying 1,000 classrooms have been cooled. Auditor notes DOE reports conflicting numbers.
—2018-2019: DOE continues installations and repairs. Complaints rise over faulty systems and poor performance. Contractors walk away from maintenance issues.
—2019: DOE launches the “School Directed AC” program, giving schools more authority to pursue their own cooling projects with limited oversight.
—2022-2024: DOE spends millions more fixing or salvaging solar AC systems. Repair logs show nearly 1, 800 maintenance requests.
—2025: State Auditor Leslie Kondo releases Report No. 25-09. The report found that the $100 million initiative was rushed, wasteful, and left DOE with failing systems. The School Directed AC program has been effectively shut down, leaving no clear replacement.
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