Dozens of public school educators and parents from Maui poured out their anguish, anger and frustration Thursday over what they feel have been slow and confusing actions by state education officials in the wake of the wildfire disaster.

Nearly two hours of emotional spoken testimony, with many Maui speakers testifying via WebEx, and 53 pages of often critical written testimony from the public were presented to state Board of Education members during their meeting in Honolulu, in the first full board meeting since the wildfires began.

The numerous concerns included reports of toxic contamination on the Lahaina school campuses, poor department communication, calls to keep Lahaina students united and Hawaiian immersion students together, and a need to help teachers and keiki through deep trauma.

Lahaina educators “have been in a state of trauma for weeks, and they can’t calm down because they don’t know if Monday we’re gonna have to go to school and look into the faces of 30 children who may have lost their homes,” said Victoria Zupancic, a Lahainaluna High School educator who testified as an individual.

She was referring to the 327 employees from the four closed Lahaina public schools who have been told by the state Department of Education that they are expected to resume work Monday at a location off site from their campuses.

“No one from state offices have asked these educators who lost their homes that they’re ready. No one has asked them if they’re OK,” Zupancic continued. “No one has asked if we’re prepared to drive through Lahaina daily watching the number of crosses grow on the road. No one has asked if they need bereavement time because their families have died. No one.”

Zupancic, who is a curriculum, AP testing and Title I coordinator at Lahainaluna, and a leader with the Hawaii State Teachers Association, said up to one-third of the teachers from the four Lahaina public schools — King Kamehameha III Elementary, Princess Nahi­enaena Elementary, Lahaina Intermediate and Lahainalua High — lost their homes in the fires that began their deadly march Aug. 8.

Ashley Olson, another Lahainalua High teacher who spoke as an individual, expressed frustration also at what she feels has been inappropriate communication and decisions by the DOE. “It should have been clear to the meanest intelligence that we would not be able to return to school for weeks at the least,” for instance, Olson said. “And yet your information (about schools closures and paid leave) was dribbled out two to three days at a time.”

She said the first DOE communications to teachers “came to our school email — to people who had no internet, no computer, to many people who had no home.”

HSTA President Osa Tui Jr. said teachers need mental- health support, plus high- quality training in how to support their emotionally wounded students. “We can’t expect our few school counselors to be able to deal with the overwhelming trauma those in our schools are dealing with. Two days of training will not be enough for our teachers to handle the trauma as the list of the missing (in the fires is released).”

Tui also said that because some DOE teachers who lost their homes in the fires are employed in other parts of Maui, they haven’t been granted the paid administrative leave given to employees for the four closed schools located in Lahaina. “Being told to suck it up and just use their personal days — of which they only have six personal days for the entire year — is just heartless,” he said. He said the DOE should allow them to convert some sick leave to personal leave, or should establish a leave “bank” so other teachers can donate their days off.

Some public schools in other parts of Maui are starting to receive dozens of displaced keiki but have not received additional staff, Tui said. One school in Central Maui has received more than 60 new students, he said. “Deploy district and state office staff from elsewhere in the state to assist, just like what was done during the height of COVID. Make sure that the needs of our other Maui schools are not lost in the mix,” Tui said.

Numerous testifiers voiced worries about the wisdom of a DOE plan to bus some Lahaina students to schools in other parts of Maui. Several parents said they will not want to be so far from their keiki so soon after the disaster. And having to drive by the burned ruins twice a day will not be healthy, testified Dr. Melissa Kim, a pediatrician at Malama i ke Ola Health Center on Maui.

“Little things such as a traffic jam has triggered one of the evacuee kids to flash back to that time” of the terrifying fires, Kim said. “What would we expect him to be like if he has to drive past Lahaina town twice a day as well? … I wouldn’t expect adults to be put through this, much (less) our very sensitive keiki, who will also express their grief in different ways that may not be noticeable to adults around them.”

Kim said that in the aftermath of disasters such as 9/11, researchers have found about 30% of children typically are diagnosed with psychiatric disorders from trauma. With 3,001 public school students in Lahaina, that could be more than 900 keiki — “which Maui is sorely unable to handle (with) mental health professionals, counselors and physicians and teachers,” Kim said.

Meanwhile, many Hawaiian immersion educators and parents voiced pleas for DOE support to have their students gather at a single temporary K-12 site located in West Maui but away from the disaster zone.

Mikey Burke, a mother of four students in Hawaiian immersion programs in Lahaina, said immersion students in K-12 can and should be schooled on one temporary satellite campus. After the state’s long history of inadequate support for Hawaiian language and culture, “you have this opportunity right now to make things right,” she said. “In the short term, allow us to be together, and in the long term, build us a school for our own community. … When you can do that in Lahaina, we want you to do that everywhere else on this island.”

Burke also echoed worries voiced by numerous teachers and parents that even after Lahainaluna High, Lahaina Intermediate and Princess Nahienaena Elementary schools are cleared by officials for safe air, soil and water, they could be contaminated as debris is cleared from the nearby burned remains of Lahaina town.

Prior to the public testimony, state schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi presented a report on “Maui Wildfire Impacts” that summarized the disaster’s effects on the schools, the DOE’s short- and long-term responses, and support for students and staff. He said that all employees from the four Lahaina schools have been confirmed safe, but 103 have said their homes were burned.

“Your firsthand experiences of loss and trauma and grief as educators as parents as community members are very powerful and humbling,” Hayashi said. “Please know that your concerns are being heard. And that you have my commitment that the department will do everything to support you, our students, our families and our school communities. … I extend my deepest condolences to all those who have suffered loss and displacement during this tragedy.”

Part of Hayashi’s report said about two-thirds of the 3,001 children who once attended Lahaina’s four public schools still have not enrolled in other Hawaii public schools or the state’s distance learning program. Officials have no way yet to tell exactly how many students have left the system for private schools or the mainland, are pausing schooling or are among the West Maui residents reportedly still missing in the wildfires disaster.

As of Monday only 538 of the Lahaina students had reenrolled in other Hawaii public schools, and 438 students had signed up for the State Distance Learning Program.

Meanwhile, the DOE has announced an interim schooling plan for those West Maui families still seeking places to enroll students in in-person learning: They can temporarily relocate to designated schools in Central and South Maui, and bus transportation will be provided in coming days.

The department is organizing a family and community meeting for Wednesday, with details to come, the DOE said. Families and staff who are facing internet challenges and who need assistance can call the DOE’s support hotline at 808-727-6880 from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays.

Hayashi said Thursday that the DOE has worked hard to communicate in available channels — sending text messages to principals to forward to families, programming staff emails to be in plain text so that they load more easily, giving frequent updates to media, and launching a centralized voicemail system and hotline, for instance.

“We’re unwavering in our commitment to support our employees and students who have been affected by this tragedy. We understand the emotional toll this is taking, and we are dedicated to providing the resources, counseling and assistance needed to navigate these very difficult times,” he said.

When Hayashi was asked later in the meeting by board member Lauren Moriarty what he needs, he asked for flexible decision-making — “the latitude to be able to move quickly in directions that are needed, that may not be traditional.”

Board Chair Warren Ha­­ru­ki, who has worked on the ground in prior positions through Kauai’s Hurricane Iniki disaster and 9/11 in New York, told Hayashi that “unprecedented times require unprecedented actions by the board, so we’re here to support you.”