KAHUKU — Kahuku High & Intermediate School's agriculture program could lose about half of the farmland it has worked for 75 years unless the new owners can work out a deal with the state.

Once property of the James Campbell Estate, the land, which is part of a 58-acre parcel, now belongs to Patsy Colburn, of Kahuku, and Kirk Fausett, her California partner. They are allowing the school to continue using the one-acre plot until they begin developing it.

The matter of ownership came as a shock to school officials, who have spent about $100,000 in grants over the past 15 years on farm upgrades — purchasing material with grant money and having students provide the labor.

"We thought it was state land because they've been using it since the 1940s," said Matthew Kanemoto, Kahuku's agriculture and aquaculture teacher.

Kahuku students have written letters to legislators, the City Council and the media asking for help.

"This agriculture program has a rich history unlike any other," William Lurbe Jr., a senior, wrote in a letter to The Advertiser. "Kahuku High students have been working our school farm since the 1940s. Thousands of students have worked hard in building this farm and now, that is in danger of being lost."

State legislators said they want to discuss the issue with the owners and believe there is time to work out a way to hold onto the property, which includes a cornfield, an aquaculture building, a hydroponic greenhouse, a Hawaiian plant nursery, a plumeria grove, an assortment of citrus trees and plots of kalo, sweet potato and sugar cane.

Colburn said she favors donating the farmland to the school but needed to discuss the issue with her partner. After those discussions yesterday, both said they want to find a solution and plan to meet with legislators and school officials on Monday.

Fausett said he's open to possibilities, including an outright purchase by the school or having the state build affordable housing there and allowing the school to farm parts of the land.

He said he would hate to see the school lose the upgrades students have worked so hard to install.

"I'm committed to the community and whatever is the best for the community," Fausett said. "We want to try and make that happen."

Students fear that failure to save the land would take away some of their past as well as their future.

"We'll probably have to drop all our aquaculture classes," said Rebecca Fonoimoana, a senior. "All the classes we take here are for the natural-resources career pathway. For me and Kaila (Alva, another student), we're both planning on majoring in marine biology next year. This is what made us want to be marine biologists and study aquaculture.

"So if they take this away, it's going to take away options for students."

STUDENT-BUILT

Everything at the farm was installed or built by students. The farm is home to the Kahuku Future Farmers of America and is the hub of the school's Koko'ula (spreading rainbow) Natural Resources Academy. Much of the food and plants grown there are shared with the community.

If the land is lost, the agriculture and aquaculture programs would become mere skeletons of what is offered now, said Kahuku students.

"We won't have anything to do with fish anymore," said Kaila Alva, a Kahuku senior. "We wouldn't get to plant corn anymore. We wouldn't have kalo, and even our greenhouse, where we have our endemic plants, would be gone."

The site is at the bottom of a high cliff that forms a bowl around the farm. At the top of the cliff is "Manager's Ridge," which was part of the plantation and is where Colburn lives.

Sen. Jill Tokuda, D-24th (Kailua-Kane'ohe), said she's especially concerned about the possible loss of the farmland because she had hoped the school would be the site of a pilot program linking culinary arts, agriculture and healthy eating options.

"We're losing so many agriculture programs already because teachers are retiring," Tokuda said. "I would hate the loss of land to be the reason we lose Kahuku's program."

Several requests to get the school involved in the purchase were declined because the state didn't have the money, Colburn said, so the partners went ahead with a subdivision plan for "low-cost housing, below market."

The plan calls for 106 6,000-square-foot lots and 37 20,000-square-foot lots, Colburn said. Some five acres where she was raised will become her family's land where she and her five children will live, said the longtime Kahuku resident.

At one time, the school tried to obtain 23 acres of the land for a new school campus, said Lisa DeLong, school principal. But she said the state couldn't come up with the money in time.

State Rep. Michael Magaoay, D-46th (Schofield, Mokule'ia, North Shore), and state Sen. Clayton Hee, D-23rd (Kane'ohe-Kahuku) both felt confident that some arrangement could be made for the students, even if they have to consider another location.

"Clearly my intent is to see if we can find a meeting of the minds for the education of the youngsters at Kahuku High School," Hee said.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.