The value in Senate Bill 3328, if there is any, is that lawmakers would use it to hold the state Department of Education accountable to correct the floundering school construction process — and that they would insist on a plan before putting the DOE back in total control of facilities.
This is particularly important because of a $2 billion backlog of school projects, and the statewide budget cuts the DOE is facing, along with the end of COVID-
related federal aid.
SB 3328 itself seems to have the support of Senate leadership, which has moved it through two sets of committee hearings. That’s ironic, given that the bill seeks to repeal the separate School Facilities Authority (SFA) that many of these same leaders insisted on creating only four years ago.
At that time, the legislators established what was then called the School Facilities Agency in hopes that the new entity, reporting directly to the governor, could cut through DOE bureaucratic delays in making the most of school property.
It was a bad idea from the start, largely because the new entity’s duties overlapped with the work of the existing DOE facilities office, which retained its own complement of about 140 employees. Exactly how the state would avoid costly duplication of functions was never made clear.
Further efforts to clarify this recast the agency as the School Facilities Authority, a change that allowed it to qualify for certain federal financing loans. Of course, the authority had no staff until two years ago, surely an impediment as it operated in a separate silo from existing DOE facilities staff.
Chad Keone Farias, named the SFA’s first executive director in 2022, was seen as someone who could innovate and get jobs done more effectively. A 29-year veteran as a DOE educator and administrator, he did not have a construction background but was tapped in part because of his quick work in getting temporary school facilities in place after the 2014 Kilauea eruption.
But Farias resigned at the end of January. He declined comment to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, but he did express frustration during a Jan. 16 legislative briefing about the lack of support for the authority.
Among the assignments to SFA were the additional preschool classrooms being added under the “Ready Keiki” initiative. The first 11 classrooms were brought in ahead of deadline but, said Board of Education Chairman Warren Haruki, these actually “were essentially done by the DOE.”
If so, the SFA indeed seems to have run out of political will, as Sen. Michelle Kidani, the education chair, said that it has. Exactly whose political will has evaporated is less clear.
However, even if the authority has withered on the vine, that doesn’t mean that the DOE is ready to take over.
Its litany of failures is impossible to ignore. Among the backlogged projects are those comprising nearly $466 million in funds that are lapsing, evidence of ineffectual performance on facilities.
In December, there was also the sudden but unexplained “separation” of Randy Tanaka from employment as the DOE’s assistant superintendent of the Office of Facilities and Operations.
The school board has discussed making facilities management more plainly a criterion for the job evaluation of state schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi. That would be a wise move.
More immediately, Hayashi must be called to outline how he intends to fix the facilities management process of the DOE — now, not after he’s handed back the reins after SFA’s repeal.
Time has run out for more delay in finding a real solution to these bureaucratic failures. The students who need the benefit of decent school facilities can’t afford to wait.
