Late February or March is the earliest that a new temporary school being built to replace the King Kamehameha III Elementary School campus lost in the Lahaina fire will be ready for students and teachers to occupy, based on an Army Corps of Engineers timeline.
Construction is already underway, but the school opening is further off — and closer to the May 30 end of the state Department of Education school year — than at least some observers initially thought it would be.
Col. Jesse T. Curry, recovery field office commander for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, had said at a Sept. 26 news conference that the temporary campus in Pulelehua, near Kapalua Airport, would take around 95 days to build, but it was unclear then when that countdown would start. Some other media reports suggested that the site might be completed around the end of the current calendar year.
Meanwhile, the DOE website update at that time said, “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is handling the construction of the project and estimates it could take anywhere from 95 days to six months to complete.”
Construction began in November, and the Army Corps of Engineers said in recent statements that the temporary campus is expected to be completed and handed off to the DOE for furnishing and installation of telecommunication equipment “by the end of February.”
Asked how long the DOE would then take to equip and furnish the school and then occupy it, DOE Communications Director Nanea Kalani said by email that “occupancy of the school and operating out of the new temporary location is still in discussion with the principal and complex area superintendent.”
The temporary school will be designed to support 600 students, using portable “modular buildings,” and will include 30 “classroom spaces”; an administrative building; a learning resource building, with a library, offices and workrooms; a dining room; a basketball court; and a fenced play area, Kalani said.
The lease agreement for the Pulelehua site is for up to five years, she said.
Roughly 640 students had been enrolled to attend school this year at the original King Kamehameha III Elementary School at 611 Front St., but it was damaged beyond repair in the Aug. 8 wildfire.
Starting in early September, the DOE began offering bus service for displaced Lahaina students who wanted to attend classes at other designated campuses in Central and South Maui.
On Oct. 18 the three surviving public school campuses in Lahaina were reopened. Several hundred students and employees of King Kamehameha III Elementary have since been sharing the campus of Princess Nahi‘ena‘ena Elementary School in upper Lahaina.
State officials have said the long-range plan is that students and employees of King Kamehameha III Elementary would move to the temporary campus in Pulelehua, remaining there until a permanent replacement school is built.
On Nov. 4, Aina Pono, a Native Hawaiian organization based in Waianae on Oahu, was awarded a $53.7 million contract by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to build the temporary school in Pulelehua.
The land was prepared in late November, and modular units are being sent from Oahu, Washington and California. DOE updates are compiled at 808ne.ws/3uSOoHj. More information on the Maui response by the Army and the Army Corps of Engineers can be found at facebook.com/HonoluluDistrict and 808ne.ws/41jQlbG.
On the question of whether the school year for students affected by the wildfires would be extended beyond May 30 — many missed about two months of school, and some students still have not returned to classes — Kalani said the end of the school year is already determined by the contract between the Hawaii State Teachers Association and the state. “The department is planning summer learning opportunities for students to provide additional instructional time,” she said.
Asked when a permanent replacement for King Kamehameha III Elementary is expected, Kalani said the department “has not selected a site for a permanent school. We have also not engaged with a design consultant or planning firm to begin the process to build a permanent school. The department has been working with the state to determine insurance reimbursements from the loss of the original campus. We’ve also submitted a request for public assistance to FEMA to help rebuild a new permanent school.”
Meanwhile, safety monitoring continues at the three operating DOE campuses in Lahaina. The department has hired a contractor to conduct biweekly wipe sampling in classrooms to test for any particles settling on surfaces. “The last wipe test on Nov. 20 found no lead or arsenic, similar to the previous two samplings,” a DOE statement said. DOE updates on Lahaina schools can be viewed at 808ne.ws/3Zw0dOG. Data from air quality monitors is available at fire.airnow.gov.
