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Star-Bulletin file
Maili student Randall Medeiros shows his disgust
while holding a flypaper roll. The flies were caught
that morning, on May 15, in the cafeteria.

School’s air system
on ‘fast track’

Maili Elementary, near pig
and chicken farms, has long
suffered heat, odors and dust

---

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

Location is everything.

Having state officials meet in recent weeks at Maili Elementary School -- plagued for years by heat, farm animal odors, flies and dust -- to plan for a new air conditioning system may have helped move things along, chuckled state Sen. Colleen Hanabusa (D, Maili, Waianae).

"I think the best thing was having the meetings there," quipped Hanabusa, who has been involved in the planning.

"Let's put everyone in Maili's shoes."

While students and staff at the Leeward Coast school continue to endure the elements, Hanabusa and others said the work of getting the air conditioning installed is going better than expected.

Hanabusa said she had expected the process to be bogged down in bureaucracy, but has been "pleasantly surprised" at how fast it has moved along.

Planning and design should be finished next year, with construction to begin in December 2001. It is expected to be completed in July 2002.

The project is expected to be completed within budget, officials said.

"We're doing it faster than normal," said state Comptroller Ray Sato, the head of the Department of Accounting and General Services, which oversees school construction projects. "We're trying to speed some things up. We're trying to work longer hours, trying to find all the shortcuts we can."

Maili Elementary, along the hot and dusty Leeward Coast, is situated near pig and chicken farms.

During the past legislative session, students, parents, teachers, staff and other supporters traveled to the Legislature to lobby for funding to solve the problems.

State lawmakers appropriated a little more than $3 million for an air conditioning system. After the money was released in the fall, planning sessions were held to select a centralized air conditioning system.

Education Department facilities planner Nick Nichols said a centralized air conditioning system is more efficient, cost-effective and longer lasting than other options -- such as window units -- that were considered.

The electrical system will be upgraded to support the air conditioning system and future computer needs. Construction will involve building a structure to house the system's central component and then preparing each building to receive the air conditioning.

That construction is expected to take place while school is in session, and will require coordination and patience, officials said. "It's going to be trying once construction starts," Hanabusa said.

Officials began discussions yesterday on ways to keep disruption to a minimum, Nichols said.

Principal Linda Victor said temporary air conditioning units provided by the producers of the television show "Baywatch Hawaii" toward the end of last school year were a big help.

"It was wonderful. It did offer some relief for the last few weeks of school," Victor said.

While the school would like the air conditioning as quickly as possible, the two-year timetable is on the fast track. "We can't move any faster."

That is a big improvement on the five-year projection Victor said she had originally received.