Principal Michael Miyamura hopes a still-to-be-built new school in the area will help ease some of the stress on his Kapolei Elementary School, which had to move to a multitrack schedule three years ago to serve all its students.

The land has been donated by developers building a 1,150 unit subdivision scheduled for occupancy in 2008, with the school projected to open in 2009.

However, the school needs money for construction.

Already last session, the Legislature denied funding for a much-needed middle school in 'Ewa.

In both communities, the state again faces the issue of new homes being built more quickly than it can pay for the schools needed to serve incoming families.

"It's a big challenge," said Sanford Beppu, a capital improvements planner for the Department of Education.

The DOE's priority will be to get the school built in 'Ewa and provide some relief to crowded 'Ilima Intermediate School, as well as nearby elementary schools that would move their sixth grades to the proposed middle school. 'Ilima is beyond capacity with more than 1,200 students.

The new school would also help accommodate families moving into the new and planned 'Ewa subdivisions. "There's a need now, for sure, and as more homes get built and occupied, that need just gets greater," Beppu said.

The planned 'Ewa and Kapolei schools are among four slated for construction statewide in the next few years.

Kapolei Elementary School is an example of what happens when residential growth outpaces new school construction.

By the time it finished its first decade, the school was so overcrowded that the student population had to be broken into four "tracks" so that only 75 percent of the kids are in school at any given time, with a nine-week-on, three-week-off schedule.

The school now has 1,169 students — nearly 38 percent more than the 850 it was built to handle — and, principal Miyamura said, "We keep growing every day; every day I see more students coming."

"I would love if the new school could help relieve some of the overload of students. That would really help," he said.

"Then maybe this school would be able to go to a single track."

Sen. Brian Taniguchi, chairman of the Senate Ways and Means committee, said he would like to see an end to multitracking, but at the same time, it's difficult to justify building new schools in areas that have already received significant capital improvement money.

In the past few years, Kapolei has seen construction of an intermediate school, a high school and field, a civic center and a library.

The Legislature also recently funded a $95 million courthouse for the area.

In 'Ewa, construction of a new elementary school is under way.

As senators from across the state jockey for money for their districts, they might not support another school in an area that has recently seen new construction.

For instance, Taniguchi, D-10th (Manoa, McCully), noted that a state policy requires all new schools be built with air-conditioning — and it can be difficult for the DOE to justify another air-conditioned school in Kapolei when schools in equally hot districts have none.

Another problem is a disconnect between the counties and the state.

The counties approve the zoning and building permits for new developments and mandate donations of land and infrastructure for a new school, but the burden still falls on the state to come up with the bulk of the money to actually build and staff it.

The Legislature last session passed a bill that calls for more developer participation in planning new schools as well as the new residential developments "so the DOE doesn't get stuck with having to fund all the stuff," Taniguchi said.

However, the bill will not have an effect on either the 'Ewa or Kapolei school, since it just establishes a working group to come up with a method for the DOE to assess fair-share contributions from developers. The group is expected to make recommendations to the Legislature within the first three weeks of its next session.

That's not to say that the developers do not make a significant contribution. D.R. Horton, Schuler Division and the Estate of James Campbell last week donated $3 million in cash, land and improvements to build the planned Kapolei Makai Elementary School to support its 1,150 Mehana community expected to open in 2008.

The DOE will have to come up with $25 million to build the school, which would take 18 to 24 months.

"Once we get the monies, we can begin the design phase," Beppu said.