U.S.A.
August 17, 2015
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 9
Hawai’i schools consider ‘heat days’ during scorching year
By Cathy Bussewitz
The Associated Press
ONOLULU — In her 90º class-
room, Hawai’i teacher Sharon
Nichols is so desperate to keep
her third-graders cool that she walks
around the classroom spritzing them with
ice water.
Like virtually all schools in the normally
temperate state, her building lacks air
conditioning, and that’s been fine in the
past. But Nichols and other teachers in
Hawai’i say it’s been so hot this year that
students have shown symptoms of heat
exhaustion and had to go to the school
nurse.
“I just worry about the kids that start
looking sickly and tired in my class,”
Nichols said. “It’s very hard to focus. I’m up
here teaching, and I’m telling the kids
‘Come on, wake up,’ and I’m falling asleep
myself.”
The Hawai’i teachers union says if it’s
too hot to pay attention, it’s too hot to go to
school. Its president is calling on the state
to establish “heat days” — like snow days
— and cancel school when it’s too stifling to
learn.
The move comes during a particularly
scorching year in the state. Temperatures
in Honolulu reached record highs at least
25 times in the last year, according to the
National Weather Service, and experts say
Hawai’i’s cooling trade winds have been
declining for decades.
“What modulates the weather here in
Hawai’i strongly is the temperature of the
ocean water,” said Chris Brenchley, a
meteorologist with the National Weather
Service. “Our surrounding ocean waters
are running anywhere from two to four
degrees Fahrenheit above normal.”
That has led to air temperatures that
are two to three degrees above normal, he
said.
Unbearably hot classrooms prompted
Corey Rosenlee, president of the Hawai’i
State Teachers Association, to suggest the
“heat days” idea. Around the country,
some districts such as Denver Public
Schools cancel school during extremely hot
days and adjust their calendars to
minimize heat in the classroom.
“My first priority is putting air condi-
H
tioning in our classrooms, because I do not
want kids missing school because it’s too
hot,” said Rosenlee, who described
students fighting to sit near the fans when
he was a classroom teacher. “You put 30 to
40 bodies in a room that are moving, and
they are all little furnaces.”
Nichols, who teaches at Honowai
Elementary School in Waipahu, started an
online fundraising campaign to get an air
conditioner in her classroom.
At James Campbell High School on
Oahu, where about 20 percent of the
classrooms are air conditioned in a school
serving more than 3,000 students,
eleventh-grader Sydney May fanned
herself with a vocabulary handout as a
classmate rested his head on his desk in
the 90º classroom. May said she worries
that students in air conditioned
classrooms have an advantage.
“I’m focused on how hot I am, instead of
learning,” May said after class. “I feel like
I’m not obtaining as much information as I
can.”
While an official count found that 94
percent of schools in Hawai’i don’t have air
conditioning throughout the entire school,
some schools have limited air conditioning
or have added units on their own. The
Hawai’i Department of Education is
planning to add air conditioning to a list of
priority schools, but many facilities are
more than 60 years old and would need
new windows and electrical upgrades to
Iwakuma tosses no-hitter in Seattle’s 3-0 win over Orioles
Continued from page 8
the stands and made a nifty over-the-
shoulder catch for the first out.
“In that situation you’re not letting it get
down if you can,” Seager said. “You’re
going to do whatever you can.”
Baltimore was no-hit for the seventh
time in franchise history and the first since
Boston’s Clay Buchholz in 2007. The best
chance for the Orioles to get to Iwakuma
came in the fourth inning after Manny
Machado walked to lead off and Gerardo
Parra chopped a grounder in the hole
between first baseman Mark Trumbo and
second baseman Robinson Cano. Quickly
moving to his left, Cano tracked down the
grounder in shallow right field and threw
across his body to get Parra at first.
Iwakuma walked Chris Davis with two
outs, but he struck out Jimmy Paredes to
end the threat.
Iwakuma also walked Jonathan Schoop
on a check-swing, full-count pitch to open
the eighth inning. But after striking out
Ryan Flaherty looking, Iwakuma got
Caleb Joseph to ground into a double play.
After Lough fouled out to open the ninth,
Machado grounded out to Seager and
Parra flew out to shallow center field to
end it. It was the first complete-game of
Iwakuma’s career, having pitched 8 2/3
innings twice, including earlier this month
against Minnesota.
“It’s not just a normal loss. We’re going
down in the history books on the bad side of
a no-hitter,” Baltimore’s Adam Jones said.
“But tip your cap. Iwakuma threw his
game.”
Iwakuma
missed
two-and-a-half
months early in the season after straining
a muscle in his back and side. He’s been
solid since returning and there were
rumblings around the trade deadline that
Iwakuma might be moved.
“That’s all I thought was to come back
and give it all I’ve got every start and make
up for the lost time I had in the first half,”
Iwakuma said.
Iwakuma didn’t get a ton of offensive
help, but it wasn’t needed. Franklin
Gutierrez had an RBI double and Cano
followed with an RBI single, both with two
outs, to give Seattle a 2-0 lead in the third
inning off Baltimore starter Kevin
Gausman (2-4).
Jackson led off the fourth with a double
and scored on Jesus Sucre’s RBI double,
again with two outs. It was just the fifth hit
of the season for Sucre, Seattle’s backup
catcher.
Wondering what events are going on this week?
Check out The Asian Reporter’s Community &
A.C.E. Calendar sections, on pages 10 and 12.
handle the load, said Brent Suyama, a
spokesman for the department. They are
also conducting a heat abatement study,
and have installed a photovoltaic air
conditioner in one school with good results,
he said.
The state’s public schools utility bill
costs more than $60 million per year, and
installing air conditioning at all public
schools would cost an estimated $1.7
billion while also driving up electricity
costs, Suyama said.
“It’s always a battle money-wise, be-
cause there’s only so much money availa-
ble,” he said. “Every agency needs funds to
get things done, and the Department of
Education is just one of the departments.”
The department is open to discussing
what would constitute a heat day, and it
would need to explore impacts like the
number of instruction days required by
law and union contracts, spokeswoman
Donalyn Dela Cruz said in a statement.
Public schools in Hawai’i typically start
HIGH HEAT, LOW PERFORMANCE. With
only open windows and fans to cool the room down,
students enter their non-air-conditioned classroom at
Campbell High School in Ewa, Hawai’i. Many public-
school classrooms across the Island are not equipped
with AC, making it difficult for both teachers and stu-
dents when the temperatures are high. In Hawai’i,
which has been experiencing record high tempera-
tures, school officials are weighing whether it makes
sense to have “heat days,” where school is cancelled
because it’s simply too hot. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia)
the year in late July or early August and
end in late May.
At humidity levels of 60 percent,
weather officials advise extreme caution
when the temperature reaches 86º,
meaning prolonged exposure can cause
heat stroke or heat cramps, Brenchley
said.
Kids are especially susceptible to heat
exhaustion because of their small size, and
they can experience headaches, nausea,
and vomiting, said Paul Eakin, pediatric
emergency doctor at Kapiolani Medical
Center. “It’s definitely far from ideal, and
it’s going to definitely affect their
performance at the higher temperatures,”
Eakin said.
Punahou High School, the private school
in Hawai’i that President Barack Obama
attended, has air-conditioned classrooms.
The units were purchased through
fundraising, but the school’s $22,050
annual tuition pays for the operating costs,
said Laurel Husain, spokeswoman for
Punahou.
Back at Campbell, one teacher started a
bottle recycling bin to raise money for fans
for her classroom, May said.
“It’s outrageous. I can’t believe that
we’ve allowed our schools to go on like this
for so long,” said Mike Wooten, a teacher at
Campbell. “It gets up to 100º in my class-
room.”
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