Students from the Grade 5/6 class at Sts. Cosmas and Damian Catholic School cool off at the misting station at the school on May 24.Jessica Lee / The Globe and Mail /The Globe and Mail
There is no air conditioning at Toronto’s Sts. Cosmas and Damian Catholic School, where the main structure was built in 1950, which means this is the time of year when Enrica Della Mea is used to championing lost causes. She opens windows, turns off lights and makes sure at least two fans are running in every classroom.
The principal does what she can, but she cannot defeat the weather: “The learning and the focusing become difficult when they are overheated.”
This year, Ms. Della Mea has a new tool to fix the annual spring issues of sweaty brows and red faces throughout the hallways.
Just last week, the elementary school was given the gift of mist.
In its concrete schoolyard sits a large blue umbrella with eight small nozzles that, with the push of a button, creates a cooling mist.
Sts. Cosmas and Damian, located in the city’s north end, is among 12 schools at the Toronto Catholic District School Board piloting misting fans amid temperatures that make classrooms almost unbearable for the last few weeks of the school year. In recent years, parents and educators across the country have complained about extreme conditions in classrooms, particularly around heatwaves. This past fall, several schools in Quebec’s Gatineau area were closed for a day because of the heat.
Installing air-conditioning systems in aging school buildings is an expensive venture. But as the planet warms, classrooms are becoming increasingly uncomfortable places – and it can affect learning. A 2018 research paper by the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Mass., found that for schools without air conditioning, every one-degree Fahrenheit increase in temperature reduced learning over a school year by 1 per cent. The researchers analyzed test scores, temperatures and school air conditioning.
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After only a few days using the misting system, Ms. Della Mea noticed a change. Teachers came by the office to grab the remote so their classes could spend some time under the umbrella and cool off. The gym teacher had an activity outdoors with his class and used the misting station for a bit of relief.
On Friday afternoon, within seconds of the recess bell, students ran to the umbrella. It was a mild, pleasant spring day but little hands reached up toward each nozzle so they could feel the mist.
“It’s refreshing,” said Simeon Tarranco, a Grade 3 student.
Ella Mazzotta said her Grade 1 classroom can get uncomfortably warm this time of year. “When I’m doing work, I get sweaty and then the sweat drips on my paper,” she said. This marked her second time under the umbrella. “When it’s cold, it feels nice on my skin.”
Students at Sts. Cosmas and Damian Catholic School run to the misting station at the school during recess.Jessica Lee / The Globe and Mail /The Globe and Mail
Eden Kennedy, a Grade 6 student, said some of her classmates feel sick when the classroom gets hot. She was more pragmatic about the new misting system: “I think it’ll be a lot better than just having nothing and being gross and sweaty out here.”
The Toronto Catholic board said the 12 misting systems cost a total of $48,000. It plans to run the pilot program until the end of the school year, and again in September if the weather is warmer than usual.
Only 38 Toronto Catholic schools of nearly 200 are air-conditioned. Many other schools have cooling centres, which are generally wall-mounted air-conditioning units in large areas such as libraries or gyms that students rotate through for heat breaks.
Trustee Maria Rizzo pitched the idea of misting stations to the school board last year. Ms. Rizzo explained how uncomfortable she was when her air conditioner broke down at home. A splash of water brought some relief, she said.
That same week last May, she attended an event that had a misting station in the backyard.
It sparked the idea to introduce a motion to the school board.
“I think that they’ll have fun with it. That’s really important, because if they’re having fun, and then they’re happy, and then they come back in and they learn,” Ms. Rizzo said during a visit on Friday to Sts. Cosmas and Damian school.
The misting station won’t be limited to only student use. Ms. Della Mea’s office doesn’t have any windows, which makes it quite humid. Her hair usually goes into ponytail, and she turns the fan up to full speed.
On Friday afternoon, she stood by the umbrella with a group of students, raised her arms and let the mist cool her down.