Governor Ige out beats his promise to cool 1,000 classrooms

He announced the Cool Schools Initiative met its goal and about 300 more classrooms will be getting ACs by the end of next month.

The project was slated to cost $100 million but fell below budget.

Aside from AC unit installations in 88 schools, other heat abatement strategies have been implemented.

On extremely hot days, some classroom temperatures can soar near the triple digits.

"We are again committed to providing our students the environment for them to learn and succeed. Most importantly, the teachers, so that they can focus on the learning that is so important for our children," Ige said.

"We have heard from students and we know that when we put student voices first, they let us know when we're doing good work. They've consider this good work. They've also told us there's more classrooms to cool," Christina Kishimoto, DOE's Superintendent said.

During Governor Ige's State of the State Address in 2016, his original goal was to have installations complete by the end of 2016.

But soaring contractor bids came in over budget and set the project behind.

Ige says additional cool schools projects will be carried out as funding becomes available.