St. Mark's gym dream coming to life
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer
KANE'OHE — A long-awaited dream is materializing at St. Mark Lutheran School, which is constructing a $2 million multipurpose building, the first major improvement on campus in more than 20 years.
Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser
In a master-planning process begun four years ago, officials decided a multipurpose building containing a gymnasium would best suit the school's goals and needs, said principal Lynne Uffmann.
Principal Lynne Uffmann and students Lauren Miyasaki, left, and Kenan Marting watch construction on the new multipurpose building.
Tomorrow the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation will join a string of charitable organizations that have contributed to the project when it presents a gift of $600,000 for the project's building fund.
The new building will allow increased enrollment, improve instruction and allow sports to go ahead on rainy days.
"Our big dream was to have a multipurpose gymnasium because our weather in Kane'ohe is so wet," said Uffmann.
The two-level, 14,500-square-foot building includes four classrooms, an indoor court for basketball and volleyball, and a kitchen. The space will be used as an auditorium, for music lessons, for lunch when it's raining and for physical education. The library also could be moved to the building.
Student body president Matagi Toilolo, an eighth-grader, said the gym would be a big improvement on campus and improve safety. When students play on the courts outside in the rain, the painted lines are slick, he said.
"Whenever the paint got wet, it was really slippery," Toilolo said. "On rainy days kids will be able to play in the gym."
St. Mark sits on Kamehameha Highway surrounded by single-family homes. The church has been there for 51 years and the school for 46 years. Some 192 students from kindergarten through eighth grade attend classes.
In 1980, a new church was constructed on the campus and the old church was turned into a kindergarten/first-grade/computer lab complex.
The new classrooms will allow the school to increase the number of seventh- and eighth-grade students, Uffmann said. Each grade has one class, and the new rooms will allow each of those grades to add another class.
Residents said that while the school is a good neighbor, they are concerned about increased traffic and noise. Construction has brought noise and dust that covers cars and furniture, and talking with construction workers has not helped, said a neighbor who did not want to be identified.
The school plans to make the space available to the community, but users will be selected carefully and the hours of operation will be limited, Uffmann said. The school and the church will have priority. "We would really screen who was renting," she said. "We would never allow a big rock concert."
Project coordinator Buddy DeCosterd said organizations that have contributed to the new building include the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation, with $500,000 in grants and pledges; the Samuel and Mary Castle Foundation, $100,000; and the Atherton Family Foundation, $25,000.
More than 200 people have contributed, with matching donations from businesses including First Hawaiian Bank, Alexander & Baldwin, and Foodland.
The school continues to raise money to furnish the building.
Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.
