HONOKOWAI, Maui >> Keep Lahaina students in Lahaina.
That was the clear message to state education officials at a community meeting Wednesday delivered by the families whose lives were radically upended by the Aug. 8 wildfire that killed at least 115 people and destroyed Lahaina town and surrounding neighborhoods.
King Kamehameha III Elementary School on Front Street was damaged beyond repair and three other public schools — Lahainaluna High, Lahaina Intermediate and Princess Nahi‘ena‘ena Elementary — survived but have been closed since, adding to the trauma of those who lost their homes and loved ones.
Altogether the four schools had about 3,000 students and 324 employees.
The state Department of Education on Tuesday announced a tentative reopening date for the three campuses of Oct. 16, following the weeklong fall break, as long as ongoing environmental assessments for air, water and soil quality indicate it’s safe for students and staff to return, and power sources and broadband connectivity have been stabilized.
In the meantime, parents have been advised to temporarily enroll their children at public schools in Central and South Maui, with bus service soon to be available, according state Schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi, or to register for distance learning.
As of Wednesday, 1,757 West Maui students — or 60% of the total enrollment — have not transferred to public schools elsewhere or may have enrolled in private schools, moved out of state or are unaccounted for, according to DOE. A total of 732 did enroll in other public schools in Hawaii, and 478 students, including those in Kula Kaiapuni Hawaiian-language immersion programs, signed up for the State Distance Learning Program.
Honokowai resident Kahealani Kaina, who was waiting in a long line of parents before the start of the first of two DOE community meetings Wednesday on Maui, expressed the concerns of many about sending her two school-age children on a long bus ride to Central or South Maui campuses, past the burned-out ruins of Lahaina and along the tight two-lane stretch of Honoapiilani Highway that hugs the cliffs overlooking the ocean. It’s not uncommon for the highway to be shut down for hours at a time for traffic collisions, brush fires and other emergencies.
“If they’re on other side of the island, you’re separating the kids from their parents now, and if something was to happen over the pali or in between, we’re screwed again,” Kaina, 39, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Her 7-year-old daughter, Kailani, was due to start second grade at King Kamehameha III Elementary and her 16-year-old son, Kaimiloa, is a student at Lahainaluna. Four-year-old daughter Kaililani was attending Children of the Rainbow Preschool in Lahaina town, which was destroyed in the fire, and Kaina has a 3-month-old baby.
“We want to keep them in Lahaina,” she said. “It started from my parents graduating from Lahainaluna and from me, so it’s kind of like a tradition thing that we take pride in. Everybody basically in Lahaina wants to keep their kids in Lahaina.”
DURING HIS opening remarks before an overflow crowd of roughly 500 under a tent on the grounds of Citizen Church in Honokowai, Hayashi emphasized that the entire situation remains “fluid.” Plans for now include sending students from King Kamehameha III to share campuses with Princess Nahi‘ena‘ena Elementary and Lahaina Intermediate while officials consider a future temporary site for the school and the eventual construction of a new elementary campus in West Maui.
“We’ve spent the last two days together with our educators and staff from the four schools and we’ve heard from them loud and clear that it’s really important for us to keep our students together as much as possible upon returning to our campuses,” Hayashi said to applause.
Although it might be another six weeks before Lahainaluna High School reopens, Principal Richard Carosso told parents he is hoping in the interim to reassemble as many of its 1,000-plus students as possible starting Sept. 14 at the new Kulanihako‘i High School in Kihei.
DOE reported that only 186 Lahainaluna students have temporarily enrolled at other public schools and 234 are doing distance learning.
“The solution that we have is not ideal. It is not what I want, it is not what you guys want,” Carosso told the crowd. “My goal is to have kids and provide them in-person education. … I want kids back on our campus. I want them up there. I want them wherever we can have them. There could be long-term solutions somewhere else but the best option for the very short term is to stay as Lahainaluna High School and to go utilize the campus at Kulanihako‘i.
“And there are a number of our students who are at Maui High and Baldwin that want to join us at Kulanihako‘i and be together at Kulanihako‘i … and then being there for that three weeks and a couple of days, we need to get our seniors back on track to graduate. We need to get them SATs. We need to get our athletes back doing what they do. We need to get our band back — I can’t wait to hear the band play again. All the things you want is what everybody up here wants, and we are honestly working our hardest to make that happen.”
Parents asked about mental health resources for students, staff and families, and questioned whether students would be truly safe back on campus, even after the environmental assessments, given the likelihood that the large-scale clearing of rubble from the 5-square-mile burn area and Lahaina’s winds would stir up toxic particulates.
Hayashi said the state Department of Health has installed air quality sensors at the three campuses and that additional units would be installed in certain classrooms. DOE is also working with Maui County to evaluate water quality at the schools, he said, and professional cleaners will be hired to thoroughly clean the schools inside and outside before reopening.
Parents also complained that when they tried to register for the State Distance Learning Program, they were put on a waiting list.
DOE told the Star-Advertiser after Wednesday’s meetings that there is a waitlist of about 300 students “that we are trying to accommodate as soon as possible.”
In order to meet the increased demand, the department is working to recruit distance-learning teachers internally “and has ordered 400 devices that are expected early next week and will have to be loaded with programs.”
KULA KAIAPUNI o Lahaina parent Kalai Asuela, who has a senior at Lahainaluna, spoke for many in attendance on the lack of communication between DOE and parents in the immediate aftermath of the fire, and why only now are officials meeting with the community and asking for input on options for going forward.
Parents also criticized DOE for what they said was a lack of imagination and initiative in pursuing potential short-term solutions to keeping their children engaged, including hybrid in-person and virtual learning models similar to those put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic; connecting with West Maui hotels to explore using meeting spaces as temporary classrooms; and even erecting large tent facilities like the one the meeting was held under, along with portable toilets, hand-washing stations, water tankers and other accommodations, while taking advantage of the community’s proven can-do attitude and volunteerism.
“We are the people of Lahaina. We know how to rough it,” said Mikey Burke, a mother of four students in Kula Kaiapuni o Lahaina.
Burke also said that young children, especially, should not have to return to the disaster area and that more educational facilities should be provided north of Lahaina.
“In order to keep our kids safe and healthy and take care of their wellbeing, nothing is going to work for them unless they are in school out here,” she said.
Perhaps the loudest applause of the meeting came when 2022 Hana-Lahainaluna-Lanai-Molokai Complex teacher of the year Bill Tatro took the microphone after Burke to declare, “I am a teacher at Lahainaluna High School, and I can teach in this tent.”
Lahainaluna student Grace Anderson, 14, agreed with suggestions for deploying hotels as temporary places of learning, saying officials can surely find a way around the liability issues they cited as a reason for caution.
“I believe shipping us across the island to various schools is unacceptable. Lahaina students are the future of Lahaina, and united we stand, divided we fall,” she said. “I believe we should use the hotels as a makeshift learning area. Not only would it be convenient for (displaced) families staying in hotels but they can provide us with exercise, food and makeshift classes using conference rooms and large ballrooms. But most importantly it keeps Lahaina students together.”
An afternoon session at the Maui Arts &Cultural Center in Kahului drew an estimated 250 parents and DOE employees, many of whom lost their homes in the Lahaina fire and relocated to others parts of the island, enrolling their children in Central, South and Upcountry Maui schools.
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