Posted on: Friday, June 1, 2001

Summer no vacation for school-repair workers

By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Bureau

Imagine not being able to hear the fire alarm bell from all nine buildings at your school.

That has been the condition at Haha'ione Elementary for several years while the school has waited for the state to award a contract to replace its fire alarm system.

Over the years, alarms in most of the buildings have been spot-repaired, said principal Carolyn Nakamoto, but after a while even the repair workers said the system needed to be replaced.

"Certain bells in certain buildings would not ring," Nakamoto said. "We've been planning to have it replaced for many years."

So while a firm date has not been set, help is on the way, with the state saying it will spend $488,000 to replace fire alarm systems at Haha'ione Elementary School and Kalani High School.

Both schools will also get a fire hydrant repaired either this summer or next school year.

Many other schools around the state are also getting their fire alarm systems replaced.

Summer is a favored time to perform work at schools.

"Most of the schools prefer we do the work during the summer," said Raynor Minami, state Department of Education director of facilities and support services branch. "More and more because of the year-round schedule, the window of time doesn't allow contractors to finish the work. So we're asking schools to tolerate the inconvenience. It's a tough situation."

In East Honolulu at least three other schools will have some work done on their buildings now or soon.

Kaiser High School plans to replace walkways around the campus.

Wai'alae Elementary School will have water and drainage work done, and Kilauea Elementary School will have some restrooms renovated.

The projects are expected to total about $400,000, according to the bid notices.

The other projects are still in the bid stages and do not have any dates set for construction.

This summer, Haha'ione, which was built in 1967 when Hawai'i Kai was a young community, also will have its computer lab moved to a larger space that had been used by the state Department of Education for training.

The school is designated as a science and technology center for students. Work on the computer lab should be completed by Aug. 1.