Westhills homes to stay in same school district
By James Gonser
Advertiser Leeward Bureau
MAKAKILO State Reapportionment Commission officials are trying to assure beleaguered residents in the Westhills section of Makakilo that a map showing about 300 homes in the area will be moved into the state House district covering Nanakuli is a mistake and will be corrected.
The Westhills area is part of a school redistricting plan announced in January by Leeward District Superintendent Hazel Sumile to relieve school crowding.
Sumile said students who already ride buses to Mauka Lani Elementary School from the Westhills area would switch to Barbers Point Elementary.
Students from Honokai Hale who attend Makakilo Elementary will move to Barbers Point Elementary next year.
Maps released by the state Reapportionment Commission show homes in the area along Palahia Street as being moved from Rep. Mark Moses' House district covering Kapolei, 'Ewa Village and Makakilo, and into Rep. Michael Kahikina's district, including Barbers Point, Nanakuli and Wai'anae.
"These are the same homes where students were redistricted from Mauka Lani to Barbers Point, and they are being picked on again," Makakilo/Kapolei/Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board member Maeda Timson said. "We know (the commission) has a hard job to do, but you made a mistake that needs to be fixed. They are in the heart of this whole community."
David Rosenbrock, Reapportionment Commission project manager, said changing the representative district for these residents was a mistake and it will be changed back.
"These maps are just draft maps," Rosenbrock said. "One of the rules is you must be able to connect the district by road. That can't be done directly from Nanakuli to Makakilo. What we thought was a road is actually a stream."
Rosenbrock said he will bring up the mistake in committee as soon possible to correct the error.
The reapportionment commission is appointed every 10 years to redraw the boundaries of the 51 House and 25 Senate districts and equalize the populations in each district, using numbers from the latest Census.
Population growth in Leeward and Central O'ahu in the past decade required the commission to eliminate two districts in Honolulu and Windward O'ahu, and create new districts in the Leeward and Central areas.
According to the reapportionment commission's standards and criteria, each state legislative district shall be "contiguous" except in the case of districts encompassing more than one island. In other words, all parts of each proposed district should share a common border, and a person should be able to reach any part of that district without crossing the district's boundary. Put another way, no district should be divided into two or more pieces.
Moses said the change was an honest mistake, but he encourages residents to attend a commission meeting or send a letter stating their views about the change to make sure it is corrected.
The state Reapportionment Commission will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Waipahu High School cafeteria.
Other meetings are also planned, but this site is the closest to the Makakilo and Leeward areas.