Patrick Kahawaiola‘a, President of the Keaukaha Community Association, is spearheading a petition drive to get Governor Linda Lingle to release $8 million that’s already been appropriated for badly needed renovations to Keaukaha Elementary School.
A year ago, when Dwight Takamine was campaigning for the Senate, Richard Ha took him to see Kumu Lehua Veincent, Keaukaha Elementary School’s principal, and Dwight also met the teachers there and toured the cafeteria. He became aware of serious problems with the school’s facilities and helped get money appropriated for a renovation.
Eight million dollars was appropriated by the Legislature last year in new construction funds for the school, but the money has not been made available.
“The newspaper article is saying that the DOE needs to come up with a request,” says Kahawaiola‘a, “and that the governor needs to hear from the DOE that it’s important.”
It’s the first they’ve heard of this, he says. “We had DOE people sitting in on our meeting, and we have kept the Board of Education member Watanabe in the loop and he didn’t say anything about this. If that’s the issue, it’s another target we need to go to.”
The renovation is regarding the Keaukaha Elementary School cafeteria, which was built in 1954, some of it with building materials given to the school by the military. According to the fire code, the cafeteria can accommodate 102 people.
“We’ve got two schools using the cafeteria,” he says. “Keaukaha has 315 students, and Ka ‘Umeke Ka‘eo, the Hawaiian immersion school [also housed on the school’s grounds] has close to 200.”
So with around 500 students using that inadequate facility, lunch has to be served in three shifts, and some students have to have their “lunch” as early as 10:30 a.m.
The elementary school’s cafeteria also serves as a community center, he explains. “The boundaries of the school, the gym and the park mark the center, the piko, of educational/recreational/health, and safety. It’s a safe place for our children if there are other places that are not. Any one of our kids could go down and be in what we consider a safe environment.”
And the Keaukaha Community Association meets in that cafeteria every third Wednesday evening. When special issues come up that impact the native Hawaiian community – such as ceded lands, gathering rights, noise abatement from the airport, sewer problems, recent Mauna Kea issues – the cafeteria overflows.
The plan is to renovate the cafeteria as a 6000-square-foot “cafetorium” that doubles as a community center and meets all the community’s needs.
“It’s not a frivolous request and I would ask for anybody’s support for this,” he says. “We worked really hard with the legislators to get this money appropriated, a grass roots kind of thing with the kids and the parents, and we have the support of the churches, too. And it was appropriated.”
The Keaukaha folks are not working on this alone –- there are people in the business and labor areas who are hard at work doing what they can to support their efforts. They “know people who know people,” and are right now asking people at the highest levels of the DOE for guidance.
Anyone who’d like to lend his or her support by signing a petition can call Patrick on his cell at 937-8217.