But the Legislature has appropriated $5 million to renovate Roosevelt High's auditorium, and another

$4.5 million to upgrade its athletic facilities with a new track, synthetic turf for the football stadium, and other amenities.

Waialua Elementary was also fortunate in the latest scramble over money for school capital improvements, with $4 million set aside for a new library and media center.

In all, lawmakers appropriated nearly $100 million for specific school construction projects next year — far less than the $543 million the Board of Education had requested for two years.

Cracks and weather damage mark the stairs leading to the cafeteria at Ka'a'awa Elementary, which isn't included in the Legislature's $100 million budget for 2006. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

"That's the reality of where we are," state schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto said. "Because we're underfunded, it makes decisions much more difficult, and at times, I'm sure highly political."

The Department of Education and the board draw up a prioritized list of projects and money requests for each state budget cycle, but the Legislature decides what makes the final cut.

Critics say that's created a system of pork barrel politics that leaves important needs unaddressed. But others say it's not that simple, and that it's important to have a flexible system.

Pork barrel 'out of hand'

"It really got out of hand this time," said board chairman Breene Harimoto. "The list that is not on our priority list is very long this year. I'm concerned about the number of projects there."

Among the added items were the projects at Roosevelt High and at Waialua Elementary. Baldwin High on Maui got the biggest single chunk of money — more than $10 million for library renovations that were high on the board's priority list. Roosevelt and a group of nearby O'ahu schools received the biggest combined total: more than $12 million. None of those projects was on the list.

Sen. Carol Fukunaga, who represents the area, said the projects have more to do with the age of the schools than any political pull she may have.

"Many of the older schools on O'ahu are in Honolulu, and so, reasonably speaking, the needs for repairs and maintenance are so much greater than any amount that you have available at any given time," said Fukunaga, D-11th (Makiki, Pawa'a).

Launching the Roosevelt auditorium project took years of effort by many people, for instance, she said. The campus is 75 years old.

D-10th (Manoa, McCully), chairman of the Ways and Means committee, the Senate panel for major spending decisions.

The Roosevelt projects are important because many schools use the stadium, and the auditorium badly needed repairs, Taniguchi said.

He's candid about the need for lawmakers to do what they can to help schools in their districts, even though others may also have pressing needs.

"Schools probably affect the most people, as far as state facilities in a district," he said. "It's something you have to kind of keep an eye on. Parents are real active, too."

In the meantime, some projects that are DOE priorities will have to wait. No money was set aside for new classrooms at Waimea Middle School on the Big Island, or for many similar projects elsewhere. Schools on Moloka'i were left out, as was the only school on Lana'i.

Pierce Myers, principal of Lana'i High and Elementary, said a new building with six classrooms has been on the priority list for years, but is continually bypassed.

"It's really needed, and we're disappointed that it didn't make it this year," he said.

The $9 million building would replace aging portable classrooms and would house science and computer labs, a special-education classroom and other facilities. It was the sixth-highest priority on the DOE list.

"It would make up for real pressing needs that we have here," Myers said. "We have a middle-school science classroom operating out of a portable right now without a sink, and inadequate facilities really for what we need to do with middle-school science students. The same holds true for our chemistry students and biology students in high school."

It's frustrating that decisions about the school's needs are left to lawmakers who appear to be primarily concerned with advocating for projects in the districts they represent, he said.

"The unfortunate consequence of that, to me, is that there's an implication there that some schools or some students are more worthy than others, and I don't think that's the case," Myers said. "We need to leave the decisions in the hands of the department and let them manage the list so everybody who's on the list can move through the list in a predictable way as projects at the top are funded."

Enrollment rising

Ka'a'awa Elementary School students cross the campus for lunch in a cafeteria the Board of Education says needs replacement. Lawmakers and educators are divided over who should set priorities for school construction. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

"It's disappointing that we couldn't get more of our priority projects funded, but on the other hand, I think whatever money the Legislature allocates for (capital improvements and repairs) is really appreciated," he said. "We know how tight money is. I think I'm realistic in understanding that's the political process."

But it's especially troubling that there's none for the proposed 'Ewa Makai Middle School, he said. The school is expected to cost $68 million.

"That new middle school is very, very much needed because that area is growing in leaps and bounds," said Harimoto, who represents Leeward O'ahu. "I don't know where we're going to put all the students."

The school, which would serve more than 2,400 students, would be built along Kapolei Parkway in the planned Gentry Makai development, assistant schools superintendent Rae Loui said. It would relieve crowding at 'Ilima Intermediate and at nearby elementary schools that would shift sixth-grade classes to the new school.

Sen. Will Espero, who also represents the area, said he will push hard for the project next year.

"This one will be a high priority in the next session, and we have no option because this is where the growth is," said Espero, D-20th ('Ewa Beach, Waipahu). "These are where the homes are being built and where people are moving, and we need to keep pace with our educational infrastructure for our schools."

He noted that other expensive state projects in the area were financed this year, such as a new courthouse. Lawmakers also appropriated $575,000 to plan a new building with eight classrooms at nearby Campbell High, but that's far short of the estimated $7.2 million that construction will cost.

"Because the needs are so great statewide, it's hard to get everything that you want, and nobody gets everything they want, but these two projects are very important in our district," Espero said. "We have 500 new homes a year being developed. We just need to build the schools to keep pace."

Mililani Mauka Elementary was crowded with hundreds more students than it was designed for, until the new Mililani 'Ike Elementary opened last year. That school was built to accommodate 650 pupils, but enrollment quickly surged beyond 840. The new budget includes $1.9 million for portable classrooms to alleviate the crowding, and $100,000 more to design a new building with 10 classrooms.

Superintendent Hamamoto said the DOE carefully weighs its construction needs statewide, and that it can be frustrating when lawmakers have different priorities. Most Mainland school districts have their own financing authority and are better able to determine what projects are built.

"It is a challenge," Hamamoto said. "Ideally, we would be able to, however, we don't have that kind of authority to raise funds. Right now, this is where we are, so it's 'How do we make the best of the situation and help our schools?' "

Others are more blunt in their assessment, especially regarding projects added by lawmakers.

"What we refer to very kindly as legislative initiatives is simply pork barrel," said Herbert Watanabe, Big Island member of the Board of Education.

Wrestling for control

Ka'a'awa Elementary School acting principal Gay Nall looks over a weathered door on the school's aging cafeteria building. The school is marking its 100th anniversary this year. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

Though he's critical of spending that's not necessary or bypasses more pressing needs, Slom said he believes the DOE's priorities also can be flawed and politicized.

"The DOE, basically, in my humble opinion, goes out of their way to please key legislators who hold the purse strings," he said.

Some other lawmakers say it's fortunate that all decisions about school projects aren't left to the DOE, which has long been criticized as overly centralized and too controlling. Those lawmakers routinely ask school principals what their needs are and do their best to deliver.

"It seems to me that the principals are the ones who know what the schools need, more than any central administration bureaucrat," said Rep. Brian Schatz, D-25th (Makiki, Tantalus). "That DOE matrix is treated as though it's God's truth, but it's created by a person, too, and that person as a matter of fact is less close to the needs of the school than principals and teachers are, and community members and PTSA members."

Many of his constituents put a high priority on air-conditioning upgrades for Lincoln Elementary School, he said. The project wasn't on the DOE's priority list, but the Legislature approved $2.3 million for it.

"It gets hot there, and I would like to speak with the DOE administrator who tells me that that's not a priority for the school system," he said.

Political power does often determine who gets what, so it would be foolish to act as if it didn't, he said. And the governor ultimately decides whether money for any project will be released, so that's another opportunity for political influence, he noted.

"There's never enough money, so you're always fighting over limited resources, but this is about control," Schatz said. "This is about whether principals and teachers and parents should be listened too, or whether the DOE's central administration should be listened to. ... There's no monopoly of wisdom about community needs either in the DOE or in the Legislature or in the governor's office. And so this process of push and pull and give and take ends up giving us a better product in the end."