agomes@staradvertiser.com

The “learning community” vision was for Kamehameha Schools to build educational facilities in Makaha Valley connected with affordable housing for Native Hawaiians.

The idea was to more closely connect Hawaiian families with the learning opportunities and resources for advancement, creating a kind of modern-day ahupuaa, or system where the community uses and cares for natural resources along a swath of land from the mountains to the sea.

Elements of the eductional complex included multimedia and computer facilities, language immersion programs, a library, a teacher learning center, a dining hall, athletic fields, a pool and a working taro loi and indigenous gardens for learning about the culture and business of farming.

The facilities were not intended to be an extension of Kamehameha Schools’ network of campuses for Hawaiian children. They were envisioned largely to serve as an enrichment program for area public school students, including non-Hawaiians.

Kamehameha Schools committed to investing close to $100 million or more in the project.

The land offered by developer Jeff Stone is a key to the deal because the nonprofit educational trust owns no land on Oahu’s west side despite being the state’s largest private landowner. The Leeward Coast also is home to the largest concentration of Hawaiians in the state.