Kahuku High favored to win new, safer site
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
Kahuku Intermediate and High School has won the first round in the debate over which Windward O'ahu school — Kahuku in a flood zone or Ka'a'awa Elementary in a tsunami zone — is more in need of a new school, and would be more feasible to rebuild.
"The Kahuku site is our preference and the superintendent is leaning toward that, too," Rae Loui, assistant superintendent heading the Office of Business Services, told a Board of Education committee yesterday.
The department recommended acquisition of 58 acres of land to improve Kahuku, noting that more students would be served by the school, which is already more than 300 students over capacity with about 1,800 students. That compares to Ka'a'awa's 147 students and a projected decrease in its enrollment to 110 students by 2007-08.
A new school could become possible because of a land swap between the state and Hawai'i Baptist Academy, which is leasing five acres of state land in Nu'uanu and wants to acquire it for a middle school now under construction. In exchange, HBA has offered to buy a piece of land of equivalent value for a new public school where the need is most dire.
The state land has been valued at $3 million. The assessed value of the Kahuku site owned by Campbell Estate is $1.779 million, but that may be lower than a potential asking price.
Meanwhile, the Ka'a'awa site — 12 acres of a 49.7-acre parcel owned by Kualoa Ranch — has an assessed value of $377,900, but department officials say that price, too, could go higher, since the owner has considered subdividing into one-acre "gentleman farmer" lots at about $250,000 each.
The department would like to be able to buy both sites, but prices appear prohibitive.
The state Department of Education will make the final decision.
In other business yesterday, the department said it has reduced the backlog of $9.3 million worth of small work orders that had languished for years under the Department of Accounting and General Services. From July 1 to Nov. 1, the number awaiting attention has dropped from 2,949 to 1,120.
Administrators said the efficiency was the result of tighter focus and team work, more efficient scheduling and fewer middlemen overseeing the work because former DAGS employees are now part of DOE.
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.
Correction: The state Department of Education will make the final decision on a proposed land acquisition that will result in a new school site for either Kahuku Intermediate and High School or Ka'a'awa Elementary School. A previous version of this story incorrectly said that the action had to be approved by the Board of Education.
