Scorched school shakes off ashes

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

KALAHEO, Kaua'i — Classes were back in session yesterday for the 480 students of Kalaheo Elementary School, with a new, unexpected lesson plan from a weekend fire that destroyed six classrooms and the administration office.

Kalaheo students yesterday look over the remains of a campus building that housed the school's office and some classrooms. The building burned to the ground this past weekend in a fire that may have been deliberately set. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

"In a week it will be showing; in three weeks we'll be mowing," said principal Erik Burkman. "That's the lesson we want to teach kids. Sometimes unfortunate things happen but the object lesson is how everyone responded."

"This is going to create memories for generations to come. This is how people do it. Everyone we called dropped what they were doing and said, 'We'll come. Everything else can wait.' "

For three days, volunteers from throughout the community, from churches, hotels, fire stations and neighborhoods in this lush rural corner of Kaua'i turned out in force to clear rubble, rake soil, pick up glass and nails, pull dead shrubs, letter new signs, plant grass, cook and serve food for the throng of more than 100 helpers, and buy new classroom supplies so this century-old school wouldn't have to close its doors for more than a day.

Parent Jamie Carter took her second-grader Daniel to school yesterday, and they got their first glimpse of a gaping space of raw dirt behind an orange construction fence where the U-shaped classroom and administration building had stood. "The community is really pulling together. It's amazing they got it cleaned up already."

Some students were still getting over the idea that anyone might want to burn down their school and some felt a sense of fear. Investigators have said arson is suspected in Saturday's fire.

Stella Shimatsu and Robert Gilmore yesterday looked over Kalaheo School's charred American flag, found in the debris of an office in the building that burned down. "Someone was mean and brought the whole school down," a first-grader said. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

"Someone was mean and brought the whole school down," said first-grader Matthew Nishimoto, 7.

"I don't like it any more because my classroom burned down," said his sister, 9-year-old Christine Nishimoto, a fourth-grader who lost treasures in the fire, including her science project and a pencil case from Rome. She was in tears after seeing the burned school. "It's not safe," she said.

"The school is a safe environment, and once this happens they lose this sense of safety," said her mother, counselor Annette Nishimoto.

Parents were grieving, too, especially those who had attended Kalaheo as children.

"The saddest thing is losing a part of your childhood, the memories," said Daniele Morris, who attended the school 30 years ago. Morris' father, Allan Fujii, was an electrician at the campus in the 1970s, and her 9-year-old son Patrick is a Kalaheo fourth-grader.

"It's a safe place, like a second home," she said, recalling the old-fashioned charm of the building that burned and its peculiar smell after years of repainting and revarnishing. "You see it gone and it makes you feel a little empty."

Burkman

"It fell out of the rubble," Burkman said. He said the flag is a rallying point for his students, his school and the community.

"It's a symbol of people coming together," he told the assembly. "It's a message, that united we will make this school better than before."

Fourth-grader La'akea Warren, 9, gives a lei and a hug to Kaua'i Fire Chief Robert Westerman at a school assembly at which the staff and students thanked the firefighters and police who had responded to the fire. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

With emergency money from the state Department of Education, a crew from Pacific Blue Construction began work Monday to replace charred and burned wall siding, windows, doors and fence slats at two portable buildings that housed a special-education class.

The crew was hoping to have it done by tomorrow, foreman Mark Hiranaka said. "I don't know if we can make their dream come true," he said, "but it should be close."

The aid network was coordinated by Parent Teacher Student Association president Stephanie Rogers and Robyn Herbig, facilitator for the Parent Community Network Center. The two fielded dozens of calls, then choreographed squads of volunteers, including the family of teacher Jade Hamai, who died of cancer May 1 and whose funeral was Sunday.

"Justin Hamai said he knows his mom would have been here in the thick of things," retired teacher Stella Shimatsu said.

"We got the word out we needed help and the Hyatt Regency in Po'ipu showed up with five big guys to do landscaping," Rogers said. "They and the parents trimmed trees and scoured the ground and raked it to make it safe and so the kids wouldn't be traumatized."

Nicholas Gabriel and his second-grade classmates rehearsed their May Day song and dance routines outside yesterday to make space indoors for a displaced class. The school will go ahead with its May Day festivities in spite of the fire. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

Nor was the school about to cancel the fourth grade's overnight camping trip to the Koke'e Discovery Center yesterday and today.

"All the booklets for camp burned up, so the teachers got together Monday to remake all of them," teacher Gail Emoto said. "The first- and second-grade teachers adopted Mrs. Licke's class. The third-grade teachers adopted Joel Kawate's class. The fifth-grade teachers adopted Ann Keeler's class and they did whatever they needed to do to make rosters, name tags, and daily math and reading lessons.

"The teachers here work together."

Classes that lost rooms were accommodated with a little squeezing and reshuffling, and Burkman said the school can get by until school ends for the summer.

Music teacher Laine Griffith moved his classes and May Day rehearsals to the lawn to make space in his music room for the homeless fifth-grade class, while one gifted-and-talented group took to the cafeteria stage and the Headstart and preschool took up temporary residence at nearby Kalaheo Missionary Church.

To ease emotional problems any children might be suffering because of the fire, three counselors from nearby schools showed up yesterday to help if needed. As it turned out just two students required extra support, but the counselors also were advising parents to let their children talk if they need to.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.