Are misting stations the answer to hot classrooms? One school board trustee thinks so

A Catholic school board trustee is pitching what she says is an inexpensive way to help students in classrooms without air conditioning beat the heat this spring. 

Maria Rizzo, who represents Ward 5 North York in the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB), is calling on trustees to consider installing outdoor misting stations at more than 150 schools that don't have air conditioning at the board. Rizzo's motion goes will go to the student achievement committee at a meeting Thursday evening.

"If you're hungry, you can't learn; if you're hot, you can't learn," Rizzo told CBC Toronto. "It's not just uncomfortable, it's awful...It's terrible to be in a school building that has no ventilation whatsoever."

The TCDSB's website lists 196 schools city-wide, and board staff say only 37 are air conditioned. Most of the others have at least a one-room "cooling centre," or are slated to get one at some point in the future, staff say.

Rizzo said outdoor misting stations, at a cost of $5,000 to $10,000, would be a cost- effective alternative to pricey air conditioning systems, which she said can cost "in the millions."

Krista Wylie, co-founder of the student advocacy group Fix Our Schools, backs the idea.

"I laud every school board for being open to considering all solutions," she told CBC Toronto.

"Anecdotally, we see with this increased frequency in heat waves that we're experiencing in both spring and fall, we have classrooms that are nearing 38, 39, 40 degrees Celsius ... So you can imagine yourself what it would be like to try and concentrate, let alone learn something."

She said with funding challenges, it's probably unrealistic to expect all of the province's 5,000 or so schools to get full air conditioning overnight. But misting stations might be a "first step," she said.

She said some jurisdictions are already trying the idea, with some success.

"I was recently speaking with a friend who had been to Las Vegas and there. Apparently misting stations are incredibly effective in just taking the edge off... If a teacher senses that his or her class is reaching their limit of the heat, they might be able to get some reprieve in the form of a misting station."

Misting stations are currently used everywhere from amusement parks and restaurants, to grocery stores, where they keep vegetable shelves moist, according to Nick Singh, owner of the company Universal Misting Systems.

He says his business has grown exponentially for the past 10 years, especially since the pandemic.

"Patios are getting bigger and people want to spend more time outdoors, but it's just so hot," Singh said. More businesses are seeing misting stations as a solution to that problem, he said.