Maui County students and teachers are feeling the heat this school year with temperatures reaching 90 degrees nearly every day this month and causing principals to look for relief from state legislators and the Department of Education.

Since Saturday, only two days failed to reach 90 degrees, with several record-setting temperatures. Kahului Airport reached 97 degrees around 1 p.m. Saturday. That shattered the previous record for that day of 92 degrees set at the airport in 1949 and tied in 1987, according to the National Weather Service. (The hottest day ever recorded at Kahului Airport in the month of August was 98 degrees on Aug. 19, 1951.)

This month follows a sweltering July during which 19 days hit the 90-degree mark – 16.5 more days than normal, according to the National Weather Service.

“It’s been very weird,” said Kehau Luuwai, principal of Paia Elementary School, on Wednesday. “It’s been very humid, there’s no wind and it’s super hot. It rains like crazy and then it’s sunny. We’re dealing with it the best we can.”

Luuwai is one of several principals in the county dealing with the hot and muggy weather caused by the El Nino effect that is expected to last through the fall. Many of them are without air conditioners for their classrooms and are scrambling to add fans to cool off students and teachers.

While Paia is typically cooler than other parts of the island, this school year has been particularly brutal for the school, which was established in 1881. Many of the buildings were built in the early 1900s, and the only one on campus with air conditioning is the library, Luuwai said.

“They’re old buildings,” she said. “They just have mounted wall fans and the teachers also have standup fans.”

Luuwai said no classrooms have ceiling fans, and that she has placed water dispensers inside, which has “definitely helped classes.” She added that she is in the process of purchasing more fans to place in rooms.

“Last year was not even close,” she said of the heat. “It was hot, but it was bearable. This is really, really hard.”

Kahului has been even hotter, with three days last week reaching 94 degrees. Jamie Yap, principal of Maui Waena Intermediate School, said that some of his classrooms have air conditioning along with the front office, band room and library.

“The temperature might be in the 90s, but it feels like it’s 100,” Yap said.

Yap said that some of the rooms have fans, but “there’s never enough” to cool the entire room, and teachers have asked for more. He told teachers to monitor room temperatures so they can determine how often classrooms surpass 90 degrees and at what times of the day.

“We’re just as hot as Kihei, especially in our location,” he said. “We’re trying to collect data so we have evidence.”

Although some schools are looking for relief, others have already received it from state legislators and the DOE. The department has had an ongoing air conditioning priority list that several Maui County schools have been removed from over the years.

Kihei Elementary and Lokelani Intermediate in Kihei and Lahaina’s King Kamehameha III Elementary – which was formerly first on the list – now have central air conditioning. Pu’u Kukui Elementary in Wailuku also has central AC.

DOE spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz said that the AC priority list is lengthy and that Kaunakakai Elementary on Molokai is listed at number 27.

“The department is looking at implementing heat abatement measures at all public schools statewide,” Dela Cruz said via email. “We are addressing priority areas as quickly as possible.”

South Maui Rep. Kaniela Ing said that his district has tried to be proactive about the problem. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were released this year to install AC units and make them more energy efficient at Kihei schools. Kahului Rep. Justin Woodson also has helped with the DOE’s heat-abatement program, which is working with the Legislature to fast-track relief to schools that need it the most.

“Kids need a comfortable environment to learn in,” Ing said. “AC isn’t a huge cost. and it’s part of a larger problem. We’re 51st in nation in facility maintenance for education, which means that Washington, D.C., – which isn’t even a state – spends twice as much on educational facilities. This is a huge area of improvement for us.”

The state DOE suggests otherwise.

Its cost estimates for installing AC in every DOE school put the price tag at $1.7 billion, according to the department. That breaks down to approximately $5 million for every elementary school, $10 million for middle schools and $15 million for high schools.

Most public schools are, on average, more than 50 years old, and their electrical systems were not designed to support the excess energy demands of today, according to the department. Also, most of the buildings are not air-tight, so windows and doors would have to be replaced if AC were installed.

The department spends about $48 million annually on electricity, and more AC units would assuredly raise that number. When air conditioning was installed at Pohakea Elementary on Oahu, the school’s power bill doubled.

The DOE said that finding solutions “isn’t moving at the pace we’d like,” but it has come up with a number of projects to combat the heat other than AC. Solar-powered ventilators, photovoltaic air conditioning, solar light, increased insulation, roof coating and innovative building design are among the efforts to cool off classrooms.

While the DOE is looking for solutions, Hawaii State Teachers Association leaders have suggested school be canceled when classrooms get too hot. Ing said that canceling school would be due to a “lack of investment in facilities,” rather than heat.

“If this is an important thing, we need to fund it,” he said. “If kids can’t learn, that’s a problem. The public was certainly against Furlough Fridays, but here we see the same idea. The social cost of children staying home is much greater than the cost of air-conditioning repairs.”

Donna Whitford, principal at Lokelani Intermediate School, said that teachers and students at her school are fortunate to have air conditioning in three, two-story classroom buildings, 16 portables and the band room. She said she is trying to keep students “as cool as possible” in the heat wave, and she encourages them to bring water bottles to school.

The South Maui school is more fortunate than Lahaina Intermediate School, where only five of 37 classrooms have AC. Principal Stacy Bookland said it has “absolutely” been hotter than years past and that teachers have strategically placed fans to blow in cool air and blow out hot air in classrooms.

“Even my office is not air conditioned,” Bookland said. “I’m trying to do the best I can with what we got.”

Although temperatures have been rising, Bookland said that some of her West Maui students are used to the heat and the school may not need AC. She recalled telling some students to take off sweatshirts at school.

“But I’m not saying that’s acceptable,” she said.

Luuwai does not foresee AC at her school in Paia and many others because “there’s no money for it.”

Meanwhile, it appears the heat will only get worse.

“We’re in for a rough year,” she said.

* Chris Sugidono can be reached at csugidono@mauinews.com.