Work on Nanakuli school begins

By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Staff Writer

NANAKULI — After four years of community input and various construction delays, groundbreaking for a new Nanakuli elementary school campus finally took place yesterday.

A groundbreaking for the new Nanaikapono school took place yesterday, following a blessing by Kamaki Kanahele. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

The construction is part of a plan to move the existing campus to state land directly mauka of the road.

The new school is designed to handle 1,050 students and will consist of 58 classrooms, an administration building, library/media center and cafeteria.

Supplemental classrooms were added to support a school museum, a computer training center and to house the school's music, physical education and English as a second language programs.

The school has been dubbed Nanakuli IV School until a permanent name is selected.

"It's been a struggle to get where we are now, but the main thing is we're here," said Nanaikapono Elementary principal Myron Brumaghim.

The school has been on Hawaiian Home Lands property for more than 60 years. It is being moved because it costs the Department of Education about $479,000 each year to lease the property. (The lease has gone up this year to $599,000.)

Brumaghim said community leaders provided their input for the school design in 1998, then found their plans to be about $2 million over budget.

"We had to delete some items from our original plans," Brumaghim said. "Then we had another budget problem dealing with related drainage work, so we had to go back to the Legislature for an additional $2.5 million."

"We waited a long time, but it will be an air-conditioned, top-of-the-line school," said Rep. Michael Kahikina (D-43rd, Barbers Point, Wai'anae, Ma'ili). "It's about time they built this for the Nanakuli people. This area has had to sacrifice a lot, waiting for funding for certain projects and dealing with the trash dump down the road, so the school is a positive thing for us."

Department of Education assistant superintendent Al Suga said the planned 12-acre campus is two acres smaller than the existing Nanaikapono school, but the design of the new school will better utilize the space.

"The old school is pretty outdated, with several portable classrooms," Suga said. "This will be a state-of-the-art campus."

Brumaghim said the school plans health and social services on campus through a partnership with the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center.

Once the new school is ready, parents dropping off their children will be able to do so from Mano Avenue instead of Farrington Highway, where speeding traffic makes it a safety hazard.

The school will not run under a multi-track system because of the community's wishes, Brumaghim said.

Under that system, the student body is divided into groups, with each starting at a different time of the year. One portion of the student body is always on break during the school year.

Frederick Kalahua Eli, a 1947 graduate of Nanaikapono Elementary, said community leaders also wanted the campus moved because it lies in a tsunami evacuation zone.

"If I had my way, I would have moved the school even higher up the hill, but it's still much safer than where it is now," said the 69-year-old Eli, a lifelong Leeward Coast resident.

Some teachers noted that minor maintenance repairs at the existing school, which was built in the 1930s, were put off because of the planned new campus.

Teacher Debi Mahi said she will miss the oceanfront view from the current school campus. But not, she added, the termites.