The Audible Audit
The Office of the Auditor provides reports to the Legislature and the public about state agency performance. Our audits help to provide transparency about government programs and hold government accountable by assessing how effectively state agencies are delivering services and using public money.
The Audible Audit is an AI-generated summary of the office’s reports intended for public informational and educational purposes only. While the podcast content may be computer generated, the discussions are solely based on the office’s reports, which are produced without the aid of AI. In addition, the podcast is carefully reviewed by staff to ensure that the information is consistent with what is presented in the reports.
For the full report for detailed and authoritative information about the audit go to: auditor.hawaii.gov.
The Audible Audit
Report No. 25-09, An Update on the Department of Education’s Heat Abatement Efforts
An AI generated and office reviewed report summary.
In January 2016, Governor David Ige announced in his State of the State speech that he was working to cool 1,000 classrooms by the end of the year. That May, the Hawai‘i Legislature approved $100 million in general funds to cool 1,000 public school classrooms by the end of that calendar year. The department’s plan would later be referred to as the “Cool Classrooms Initiative.”
Three years later, the State’s heat abatement efforts changed course with the Department of Education’s (DOE) introduction of its School Directed AC program, which unlike the Cool Classrooms Initiative, gave schools the authority to air condition classrooms themselves, with minimal DOE involvement.
Report No. 25-09, An Update on the Department of Education’s Heat Abatement Efforts is an extensive review and assessment of the legislative and funding history of this initiative to account for the $100 million. We also reviewed DOE’s subsequent heat abatement effort, the School Directed AC program.
Learn how:
· The Cool Classrooms Initiative’s rushed planning and poor decisions early on contributed to DOE moving forward with expensive and complex solar-powered air conditioning systems that ultimately didn’t work very well.
· DOE was unable to provide an accounting of the $100 million, requiring the Office to estimate the amount spent through contract documents and other records, some of which were incomplete and missing.
· The Office was able to estimate that the Cool Classrooms Initiative cooled 838 classrooms at a cost of about $105 million, an average of more than $120,000 per classroom.
· DOE provided minimal structure and oversight over its School Directed AC program, which followed the Cool Classrooms Initiative. The department’s knowledge of and involvement in the program to be so incomplete and limited that the Office was unable to assess it.
Read the full report here:
https://files.hawaii.gov/auditor/Reports/2025/25-09.pdf
Report summary:
https://files.hawaii.gov/auditor/Overviews/2025/25-09AuditorSummary.pdf
Thanks for listening. You can find this and other reports at: auditor.hawaii.gov
Welcome to the Audible Audit, an AI-generated podcast summarizing the Hawaii Office of the Auditor's Report, an update on the Department of Education's heat abatement efforts. While AI may slightly mispronounce some words, the content has been reviewed by the Office of the Auditor and is consistent with the information in the report. The podcast offers another means to learn about the audit and is intended for public informational and educational purposes only. Listeners are encouraged to consult the full report for detailed and authoritative information about the audit.
Speaker 02:You're in a classroom in Hawaii, and the temperature is climbing past 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Speaker 01:Yeah, that was the harsh reality for a lot of students in public schools not too long ago. Really uncomfortable.
Speaker 02:Right. So back in 2016, Governor Ige announced this plan, the Cool Classrooms Initiative.
Speaker 01:That's the one. Pledged $100 million, the goal. Cool 1,000 classrooms by the end of the year. A really ambitious timeline.
Speaker 02:Very ambitious. So let's get into it. So the Department of Education, the DOE, they were under massive pressure,
Speaker 01:right? Immense pressure. Public pressure, that super tight deadline. I mean, projects that usually take years. They had months.
Speaker 02:And faced with that, they chose solar-powered air conditioning systems. Complex ones. Why go that route?
Speaker 01:Well, two main drivers. There was this mandate to aim for net zero energy for the state.
Speaker 02:Ah, the environmental goal.
Speaker 01:Exactly. And practically, they really wanted to avoid huge electrical upgrades. That could have cost another $100 million easily.
Speaker 02:Okay, so trying to be green and save on infrastructure costs.
Speaker 01:Right.
Speaker 02:But how did it pan out? The DOE spent about $105 million and only cooled 838 classrooms. That averages out to, what, over $120,000 per room?
Speaker 01:That's the number. It's staggering, really. And a lot of those solar AC systems, they either failed right away or just didn't work properly from the get-go.
Speaker 02:So more money needed.
Speaker 01:Millions more for salvage, for repairs, sometimes just connecting them to the grid anyway.
Speaker 02:And there's that Castle High School example, which is just kind of unbelievable.
Speaker 01:Installing solar panels literally under the shade of big monkey pod trees.
Speaker 02:It seems so obvious. An engineer pointed out they were getting less than 20% power. The quote was, it's dark most of the day and nobody stopped it.
Speaker 01:It really points to a breakdown, doesn't it? Like basic checks and balances just weren't there.
Speaker 02:Seems like it. And the systems themselves, they had limits.
Speaker 01:Yeah, designed to run only five hours a day, aiming for 75 to 78 degrees. Not exactly ice cold.
Speaker 02:And teachers, probably desperate for cooler rooms, pushed them harder.
Speaker 01:Understandably, yeah. But running them longer often led to more malfunctions. It was a cycle.
Speaker 02:And then the unintended consequences, sealing the windows.
Speaker 01:Right. They sealed them with plexiglass to try and make the AC more efficient.
Speaker 02:But when the AC was off.
Speaker 01:Exactly. No natural trade winds could get in. Those rooms became, as one DOE engineer put it, Unbearable. Hotter than before sometimes.
Speaker 02:Wow. So fixing one problem created another. And they prioritized portable classrooms, too.
Speaker 01:They did. Which makes sense in a way. Those often get the hottest, but they're usually old, poorly insulated, really hard to cool efficiently.
Speaker 02:And sealing those up led to CO2 issues.
Speaker 01:Elevated carbon dioxide levels, yeah. Which isn't just uncomfortable. It can actually impair thinking and learning.
Speaker 02:So on top of everything else, the potential learning impact and accountability, was anyone keeping track?
Speaker 01:That was another major finding. The DOE just couldn't fully account for the $100 million.
Speaker 02:How come?
Speaker 01:Poor records, staff turnover, a heavy reliance on outside consultants. The information they did provide was often inconsistent, incomplete. It was a mess.
Speaker 02:Okay, so after all those issues with the first initiative, they tried something else.
Speaker 01:Yes. In 2019, they launched the school-directed AC program. A different approach.
Speaker 02:How different?
Speaker 01:It basically put the power... or the responsibility back onto individual schools to handle their own AC installs. It actually started kind of organically.
Speaker 02:Organically?
Speaker 01:Yeah, like parents literally just dropping off window AC units at schools because the need was so great.
Speaker 02:Wow. So the DOE role was?
Speaker 01:Minimal, really. They offered to pay for electrical assessments if schools inventoried their existing AC units, but there wasn't much structure, not much oversight.
Speaker 02:So a hands-off approach. Did they even know what was happening?
Speaker 01:Their knowledge seemed pretty limited. Officials couldn't give basic info like how many schools even participated or how many units got installed.
Speaker 02:That seems disorganized.
Speaker 01:It was. Apparently one policy decision was made literally by an impromptu vote among officials. Not exactly standard procedure.
Speaker 02:And the future of that program is uncertain, too.
Speaker 01:Very unclear. A DOE official mentioned a recent procurement policy change basically ended it. But again, no official written policy was provided. So who knows?
Speaker 02:Leaving schools in limbo again. Let's talk about cost comparison, because the Mokapu elementary example is really striking.
Speaker 01:It really is. So remember those expensive solar AC systems? Mokapu got them in nine portables, cost $750,000. Okay. Then later, those portables were demolished.
Speaker 02:Oh, wow. All that money.
Speaker 01:Gone. But then the school air conditioned other presumably permanent classrooms for about five thousand dollars each, plus one forty thousand dollar electrical upgrade for a building.
Speaker 02:Five thousand dollars versus what was the average before. Over eighty three thousand dollars.
Speaker 01:Exactly. A tiny fraction of the cost. And they even salvage some parts from the original expensive systems. It just shows how a more localized, maybe more practical approach can be way more effective. And now there's another looming issue. Many of those original solar AC batteries are starting to fail. They're reaching the end of their lifespan.
Speaker 02:Ah, so schools face another decision point.
Speaker 01:Exactly. Do they shell out for expensive battery replacements, or do they just switch to conventional grid-tied AC?
Speaker 02:And if they switch, what does that mean for DOE's goal of net zero energy by 2035?
Speaker 01:That's the million-dollar question, isn't it? Or maybe the hundred-million-dollar question, given the history. It puts that goal under pressure.
Speaker 02:So, a final thought to leave everyone with. Whose ultimate responsible for making sure these classrooms stay cool moving forward? And how do we balance immediate needs with long-term energy goals?
Speaker 01:Big questions with no easy answers right now. It's definitely something to keep watching.