Posted on: Monday, August 12, 2002

EDITORIAL
Volunteers in schools play repairs 'catch-up'

It's not the "Marshall Plan" for repair of our decrepit school facilities that we'd hoped for, but perhaps it's the narrow edge of the wedge.

The Hawai'i 3Rs program has put volunteers to work in our schools doing jobs that absolutely need doing — and wouldn't otherwise get done.

Begun at the urging of Sen. Dan Inouye, the program combines volunteers, who do most of the work, with grants from the program. Typical projects involve painting, electrical upgrades or plumbing repairs. And the reason these jobs wouldn't otherwise get done is that state repair and maintenance money is needed for the work that, through years of neglect, has reached the crisis stage — collapsing roofs, crumbling walls and the like.

So this program and its volunteers are making an important difference, doing $2.15 million worth of repairs for less than $350,000 in actual cost to the state — a savings of $1.8 million.

Of course, that's only chipping away at the $640 million backlog in needed repairs and maintenance.

The 3Rs program encourages a strength of support for neighborhood schools that's bound to spill over into other important areas, like volunteering to help in classrooms. Pearl Harbor Kai Elementary is getting a new paint job — its first in at least 11 years.

That's a good beginning.