Hawaiian immersion parents, teachers ask to hold classes on the temporary campus
Posted: December 21, 2023
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to complete construction on a temporary site for King Kamehameha III Elementary at Pulelehua on Maui at the end of February, but it’s unclear if the site will have room to accommodate Hawaiian immersion students whose parents and teachers want them to attend school there too.
The Kamehameha III campus, which stands on the Lahaina waterfront on property where Hawai‘i’s third king once ruled the Hawaiian kingdom, was destroyed in the Aug. 8 Maui wildfires.
During a briefing of the Board of Education Thursday afternoon, State Schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi said the Corps of Engineers is expected to turn the temporary school site over to the state to install furniture and equipment by early March.
Funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the temporary school site near the Kapalua Airport is being constructed with modular buildings and will have a student capacity of 600, Hayashi said.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractors prepare a site for construction of a new temporary elementary school campus for Lahaina. Photo courtesy Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.
It is anticipated that the temporary school will be handed over to the Department of Education for furnishing and installation of telecommunication equipment by the end of February 2024. Photo courtesy Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.
Earlier this month, the Corps of Engineers cleared the land for the temporary school in Pulelehua and brought in the modular classrooms to the site.
The campus will have 30 classrooms, an administrative building, a learning resource building with a library, offices and workgroups, a dining room, basketball court and fenced play area, Hayashi said.
The department originally anticipated 38 classrooms in the FEMA-funded temporary facility, HIDOE officials said, but FEMA informed the department the number of classrooms decreased by eight to 30.
HIDOE is asking parents of Kamehameha III students to fill out a survey by Dec. 29 regarding their plans for their children after spring break and next school year. The students are temporarily attending school at Lahaina’s only other public elementary school, Princess Nāhiʻenaʻena, where they are meeting in tents and other temporary structures.
“We are expecting students and staff to move to the new school after spring break, toward the end of March and the beginning of April 2024,” Hayashi told the BOE.
“The department has been working with the state to determine insurance reimbursements from the loss of the original campus and we have also submitted a request for public assistance from FEMA to help build a new permanent school,” he said.
“Everyone has been working really hard and working together in supporting the department ensuring that this project is moving forward in an expeditious manner,” Hayashi added.
The Corps of Engineers awarded the base contract of $53.7 million for construction of the temporary school to Pono Aina Management, LLC, of Waianae, Hawai‘i, on Nov. 4.
The temporary site as seen on Dec. 20, 2023. Photo courtesy Osa Tui, Jr.
Lack of housing an issue facing one third of Lahaina educators
Hawai‘i State Teachers Association President Osa Tui, Jr. told the board Thursday, “I had the pleasure of visiting the four Lahaina schools yesterday to distribute relief checks to my members from hundreds of thousands of dollars donated from across the country.”
“While many have been able to find secure housing and are successfully working with their insurance companies through the process, many others continue to experience housing instability with one even reporting having to leave work because her family was given two hours to vacate from the hotel room that they were temporarily assigned to,” Tui said.
“Others are having to commute and pay more out of pocket than they expected to since they now live on the other side of the island,” Tui added.
Deputy Schools Superintendent Tammi Oyadomari-Chun told the board about 100 Lahaina school employees, or about one third of them, “have indicated they have some instability in their housing and we are working with FEMA and DHS, (the state) Department of Human Services to try to prioritize and get services to our employees.”
“In fact, we are collecting information from the 100 or so employees right now. FEMA and DHS said they would be reaching out with disaster case management specifically for Lahaina school employees and disaster case management would include discussions about housing,” Oyadomari-Chun said.
She said about 80 of the educators who reported housing instability are teachers.
“That’s not guaranteeing the housing that everyone might want and prefer, but at least we’re trying to do our best to raise the issue in every forum we have, about both the humanitarian need and also the workforce impact of the housing situation,” she added.
“If employees move away, we’d be losing really important parts of our Lahaina school community and also it would be very hard to recruit new employees for vacancies,” Oyadomari-Chun said.
Lahaina-area students and school employees have also expressed concerns about food security.
“There’s been a couple of donations to assist with those needs. So for all (Lahaina) students there will be free meals for the rest of this school year,” Oyadomari-Chun said.
“We’re pursuing some other options that might extend that through other federal programs longer and then for employees, there’s a donation that will allow employees who’ve said they need assistance to have free school lunch for the spring,” she added.
Kaiapuni parents, teachers want to hold classes at temporary school site
HIDOE officials reported that four teachers and 60 Hawaiian immersion students in the Lahaina area are currently studying through distance learning. Another 45 kaiapuni students are being taught by three teachers in person at Princess Nāhiʻenaʻena Elementary and Lahainaluna High, HIDOE said.
Before the fires, kaiapuni programs were previously established at Nāhiʻenaʻena Elementary, Lahaina Intermediate and Lahainaluna High.
Numerous parents and teachers of Hawaiian immersion students asked the board to be allowed to meet in person at the temporary school site near Kapalua Airport.
Liko Rogers, a Hawaiian immersion teacher, told the BOE, “These students are now enrolled in the special distance learning program created for Lahaina. However, the program is miserably failing to meet the educational needs of our students and ohana (families) and it is killing our teachers, me included.”
“We need to be together in a space where parents can feel that their keiki are out of harm’s way. We’re asking the board for help in finding a solution to our immediate need as we have been shut down by the DOE at every attempt to create the program that our ohana needs,” he added.
“We ask that the board support our efforts to have our program housed on this temporary campus as well as help us with our immediate needs of meeting our keiki in person and servicing them in a way that is going to be helpful for this community,” Rogers said.
Hayashi responded to those requests Thursday and said, “As it was designed to support King Kamehameha III, the requirements from FEMA is that the temporary site be designed as replacement for what was existing at King Kamehameha III, so that’s what we’ve done.”
The parent survey that closes in late December asking about parents’ plans for the spring and next school year will tell the department “how many students we are anticipating coming back from the King Kamehameha III enrollment to the temporary site. If students have left West Maui to Central or South Maui, they might be returning,” Hayashi said.
“Once we get that information, we’ll get a better idea of the capacity issue at King Kamehameha III temporary site,” he added.
“At that point, we then will be able to make decisions on how we might be able to support additional programs to support students,” he said.
“We are definitely open to taking a look at available spaces and being able to support additional programs,” such as kaiapuni and pre-kindergarten students, Hayashi said.