Misting stations offer kids relief from the heat

Boards grapple with how to keep students cool in aging facilities

- ISABEL TEOTONIO

The lunchtime bell at Sts. Cosmas and Damian Catholic School rings and the yard roars to life with students darting out of the building, making a beeline for any sliver of shade where they can play and chatter: against the wall, beneath a tree, next to tall bushes.

Now, a new addition in the schoolyard is helping keep kids cool - a large umbrella that offers shade and doubles as a misting station where children gather, with sweaty faces tilted upward and arms stretched skyward.

"Students love this," says principal Enrica Della Mea. "They think it's fun, it's refreshing and it's another option for cooling down."

It's one of several solutions educators will be turning to this week as Toronto endures a heat wave. Keeping cool will be a challenge at many of the city's Catholic and public schools, most of them several decades old and lacking central air conditioning.

Sts. Cosmas and Damian was part of a pilot project by the Toronto Catholic District School Board, which about three weeks ago installed outdoor misting stations at a dozen schools - one in each ward - costing a total of $48,000.

The stations will get good use in the coming days as temperatures soar to 35 C; with the humidity, it will feel more like 40 to 45 C. Environment Canada has issued a warning for Toronto, saying "dangerously hot and humid conditions" are expected for most of the week.

Della Mea said the school, near Dufferin Street and Eglinton Avenue West, was built in the 1950s without air conditioning.

There's one cooling centre in the library a second will be installed in the gym this summer - so classes can rotate throughout the day for some relief.