Waikiki community leaders and activists are speaking out against a legislative effort to allow the state to make money off school lands through public-private partnerships.
Proponents of the proposal, including Gov. Neil Abercrombie, say it would bring Hawaii’s declining schools — which are about 65 years old on average and require about $210 million annually to maintain — into the 21st century. The bills establish a three-year pilot program to generate school revenue by allowing the long-term lease of public school lands.
State Senate and House negotiators will meet today to seek a compromise on two versions of the proposal, House Bill 865 and Senate Bill 237, and must decide on the plan’s fate by Friday.
The proposal hit a potential roadblock this week when City Councilman Ikaika Anderson criticized the proposals as being too similar to the repealed Public Land Development Corp. He introduced a Council resolution urging state lawmakers not to pass them until reaching an agreement on how the city would be compensated for development of their public school lands.
Waikiki opponents, including members of the Waikiki, Diamond Head, Kapahulu and St. Louis Heights neighborhood boards and the Kapiolani Park Preservation Society, also see the bills as an attempt to revive the PLDC and contend that the main goal is to allow private interests to make public land grabs. The language in the bills that discusses the benefits of tapping underused school lands and developing workforce housing is only rhetoric, they say.
Opponents fear that Waikiki schools — especially Jefferson Elementary, which sits on 15 potentially lucrative acres — would become prime targets if the proposals become law. Waikiki and Ala Wai elementary schools would also be susceptible, they say.
The state Department of Education has not identified schools that could be redeveloped, but Assistant Superintendent Raymond L’Heureux acknowledged that some proponents have brought up Jefferson, Waikiki and Ala Wai elementary schools.
"All schools are candidates at this point," he said. "They’ve got mineral rights in Colorado. In Hawaii, we’ve got real estate."
The proposals are supported by the DOE, the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools, the Building Industry Association of Hawaii, the Hawai‘i Educational Policy Center, the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, the American Society of Civil Engineers Hawaii Section, the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation and The Learning Coalition.
If the measure passes, L’Heureux envisions engaging a team of community members to set selection criteria and identify schools for the program.
"For an initiative like this to succeed, we need community and county buy-in," he said. "We can’t do this in a vacuum. The PLDC was dead on arrival."
During legislative hearings, proponents already have discussed the concept of building an affordable workforce-housing tower with a school on the ground floor.
While some of these options would be attractive to developers, Stanford Carr, principal of Stanford Carr Development, said nothing would be possible without a thorough community and neighborhood vetting.
"It’s a new endeavor and the bill doesn’t have any fast-tracking capabilities," said Carr, who supports the proposal. "The bill doesn’t streamline the development process. It just makes it possible to have the discussion."
Despite such assurances, the Waikiki Neighborhood Board recently went on record as opposing the use of Jefferson’s "large green space" for further development. Waikiki’s green space must be protected since most district children live in cramped urban quarters, proposal opponents say.
"While Jefferson School has fewer than 500 students, many are special (education) students and live in cramped condos in Waikiki and this is truly their single weekday opportunity to walk, run and play under supervision in a secure area in our crowded neighborhood," said Louis Erteschik, who serves as the board’s vice chairman and is executive director of the Hawaii Disability Rights Center.
Liz Larson, who lives with her husband and two children in a 530-square-foot Waikiki condo, urges lawmakers to consider the needs of Jefferson’s families before approving additional development.
"I’m going to fight for our school. It’s very important to our community," said Larson, who recently presented legislators with a 555-signature petition opposing the use of Jefferson School in the pilot program. "We are not in favor of a workforce housing tower with a school in the bottom of it. How would they keep our children safe?"
Linda Wong, chairwoman of the Diamond Head Neighborhood Board, said the bills are on the agenda for the board’s May 9 meeting.
"We talked about it at the last meeting and quite a few board members are in opposition," Wong said. "I don’t think schools should be used for commercial purposes because there’s too much leeway for things that we don’t want to come into our neighborhoods."
L’Heureux said discussion on specific school sites is premature and that issues like governance can be worked out during the planning process.
"What has to happen now is for everybody to get behind this and push," he said. "Hawaii is 51st in the nation in terms of capital improvement funds going back into the schools. You can see we are in a state of decay."
At the conclusion of the DOE’s ongoing facilities master plan, L’Heureux expects that some schools will be recommended for demolition.
"There’s a sense of urgency," he said.
About 21 schools have enrollments that use less than 50 percent of the available classroom space, department spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz said. It costs the school system more than $71 million annually to operate and maintain these schools, she said.
While L’Heureux understands that some parents are wedded to their schools regardless of the occupancy, he hopes most will take a broad-minded approach.
"Jefferson is an example," L’Heureux said. "The principal is in favor of these bills. There’s an opposing group of parents, but I wish they wouldn’t be so myopic and denigrate the chance to do something great because of personal reasons."
