State auditor claims DOE wasted $105M on cooling classrooms with poor planning, lack of records

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The Hawaii State Auditor is turning up the heat on the Department of Education (DOE) over poor record keeping and for its planning efforts to cool classrooms.

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.

In May 2016, state legislature approved $100 million in general funding to cool 1,000 classrooms by the end of the calendar year. This plan was labeled as the “Cool Classrooms Initiative.”

The Hawaii State Auditor, had an extensive review and assessment of the legislative and funding history of the “Cool Classrooms Initiative” that also verified the use of the DOE’s granted $100 million funding.

However, State Auditor Les Kondo now says the DOE could not ver