A 'cool' new middle school is coming to East Kapolei

KAPOLEI, OAHU (HawaiiNewsNow) - The Hawaii Department of Education will break ground Thursday for a new middle school in Leeward Oahu.

The DOE  says East Kapolei Middle School will be located across Maunakapu Street from The Salvation Army Kroc Center Hawaii. It is set to serve students in grades six through eight.

The first phase of construction will cost about $59 million and include an administration building, classrooms, a play court, libraries and more.

Physical Education facilities will be added at a later date along with more classrooms.

Interface Engineering says the school will be designed with energy efficiency and thermal comfort in mind which will while minimize on-going operations and maintenance costs.

This comes as Oahu's Leeward communities see an increase in student population, which endures soaring temperatures in the classrooms.

"Natural ventilation performance is being optimized through the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis, and preliminary energy models predict 40% energy savings over code baseline," the engineering group said.

Cooling Hawaii schools has been an ongoing issue local lawmakers have dealt with.

The groundbreaking ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. on May 10.

The school is expected to open in 2020.

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