After being pared down from previous lists of 11 and seven site possibilities, the sites still under consideration were disclosed Tuesday night during a meeting with the Kihei Community Association. All are mauka of Piilani Highway. One is north of the Elleair Maui Golf Club. Another is in central Kihei near Kamalii Elementary School, and the third is near Maui Meadows.

Munekiyo & Hiraga Inc., the planning firm hired by the Department of Education to conduct site studies, is gathering community input. Studies also are ongoing to look at site engineering, drainage, traffic, archaeology, and flora and fauna on the properties. By mid-August, public school officials can expect a report analyzing the pros and cons of each site.

Surviving the cut is the central Kihei site favored by private developer Everett Dowling, who led development of nearby Kamalii Elementary School more than 10 years ago through a private-public partnership.

Dowling has offered to build a high school on 150 acres mauka of the elementary school that had been acquired by the county for a regional park. Mayor Charmaine Tavares has said the county has no plans to build a park on the property, which has rocky terrain that would make recreational development difficult and costly.

On Tuesday, Dowling reiterated his preference for the county-owned property near Piilani Highway's intersections with Kanani and Alanui Ke Alii roads. The property is "the best alternative" because of its central location, a nearby intersection with a stoplight and its close proximity to the Kihei Wastewater Reclamation Facility, which could provide reclaimed wastewater for landscape irrigation.

Dowling said he was not deterred by the property's terrain or by the prevalence of hard rock known as "blue rock."

"There are blue rocks everywhere in Kihei," he said.

Dowling also supports development of the county property for the school because its public ownership would help keep building costs down.

Yesterday, Tavares said the county would welcome discussing with the state the use of county land for a new high school.

"The county has a lot of needs to meet for our South Maui residents and of course the state needs to address its responsibility of providing adequate education facilities," she said.

"We agree with the community and the state that South Maui would benefit greatly from having its own high school."

About 60 people attended Tuesday night's community meeting and were given comment cards to provide input on the sites. They also had an opportunity to share their opinions with the site selection consultants, who will include public comments in their report on the three sites.

People had mixed reactions to the three sites still being considered for the new high school.

Grandmother Dottie Hughes of Kihei favored the county-owned property near Kamalii Elementary because of its central location.

"It shouldn't even be a contest," she said.

Hughes, who also attended a community meeting in February, said she liked Dowling's "green" plans for the school, including the use of treated wastewater for irrigation.

"We need this school so badly," she said.

But Kihei mother Alice McDermott said she prefers the property near Maui Meadows because it is away from the already congested intersection of Alanui Ke Alii Road and Piilani Highway. McDermott's children attend Kamalii Elementary, and she called traffic in the area "chaos."

Paula Kalanikau of Kihei liked the property near North Kihei, but she was concerned about the property being in between Kulanihakoi and Waipuilani gulches.

"Where there are gulches, there is water running," she said.

Kihei parent Mark Coronesi said he prefers the county property, calling its development the "path of least resistance."

But he said he would like to hear more information from the analysis of the three sites.

No pros or cons or major details were given during a short presentation on the sites Tuesday night.

Traffic circulation at all three sites was a concern for other residents who wanted to be sure the movement of vehicles on roads near the school sites would be studied thoroughly and included in the upcoming reports.

Project manager Karlynn Kawahara of Munekiyo & Hiraga said consultants will be studying traffic at the sites in the upcoming weeks as well as other issues, such as drainage and archaeology. The consultants also will estimate the cost of land acquisition, site work and the development of infrastructure, she said.

Those findings will be forwarded to public school officials for decision-making on the site for the Kihei high school.

Consultants on the project include the Department of Education, Riecke Sunnland Kono Architects, Ronald Fukumoto Engineering, Wilson Okamoto Corp. (traffic studies) and Scientific Consulting Services Inc. (archaeology). Environmental consultant Robert Hobdy is conducting the flora and fauna assessments for the sites.

Site criteria for the high school project required each location to contain at least 50 acres for a high school, include two vehicle access points, have utility connections at the property line and be located within population centers or near proposed residential neighborhoods.

The three sites were narrowed down from seven in February. Eleven sites were originally considered.

The estimated completion for a Kihei high school campus is 2011.

Planning and design money for the school has been set aside by the state Legislature during the last two years.

The push for a new high school for South Maui dates back more than a decade.