KIHEI - The proposed 1,600-student Kihei high school has taken another crucial step this week in its winding hike toward construction.
On Monday, Gov. Linda Lingle released $8 million previously approved by the Legislature to buy up 77 acres of ranch land mauka of Piilani Highway at the intersection with Kulani Hakoi Street.
The plan approved by lawmakers in 2008 calls for a "design-build" approach to pay for the estimated $145.5 million, 215,000-square-foot high school for students grade 9 to 12.
That approach means soliciting a civic-minded private developer to build the school and then lease it back to the state Department of Education until it's paid off in 20 to 30 years, said state Sen. Roz Baker, whose district includes South Maui and who is a longtime advocate of the school.
And there may be two developers interested.
"The DOE couldn't do anything until the governor released the money; and now they are moving full steam ahead," Baker said. "With design-build, it's going to be built faster, and it should be cheaper, and we'll get it built all at once, including all the ancillary buildings . . . the cafeteria and gymnasiums and fields and stuff like that."
The final price tag could be as low as $120 million, with some redesign work and savings from lower bids in this difficult economic climate, Baker said she was told recently by Randy Moore, DOE assistant superintendent for school facilities.
The hope is to start construction in July 2012 and to open classroom doors in time for the start of the 2014-2015 school year, DOE officials said.
"The new high school campus in Kihei will support the growing student population in the area," Lingle said in a statement. "Currently, Kihei area students must commute to Maui High School in Kahului."
Baker said the high school will have the added benefit of reducing congestion during morning and afternoon commutes.
Lingle said that releasing the four-year-old earmarks will enable the state Department of Land and Natural Resources' Land Division to proceed with the land appraisal and acquisition. The parcels are owned by Haleakala Ranch Co. and Kaonoulu Ranch LLP, and negotiations have been ongoing for months.
The layout work and the required studies for the high school are either complete or nearly done, state officials said. Lingle and lawmakers previously allocated $700,000 so that the Honolulu firm Group 70 International could do the design and planning.
Many school proponents have lobbied for years to build South Maui its own high school, with its own track, football stadium and basketball gym, all things currently missing in the growing community. The campus design has a cluster of school buildings surrounding the sports facilities in a semicircle.
The Legislature has appropriated $28 million for the school over the past several years, but Lingle released only $8 million of that total.
"The rest of the money they say they don't need because they are going to use certificates of participation" or the design-build approach, Baker said. "I asked them (Department of Education officials), 'Are you sure you don't need the money that's there?' And they said, 'No, because it will never be enough money.' ''
In order for Kihei high school to become a reality using the traditional approach, lawmakers would need to set aside about $120 million over the next two years - a huge chunk of change.
"It would just take forever for DOE to amass that amount of money," Baker said. "You just don't see those kinds of large projects anymore."
There are too many other capital improvement projects across the state competing for general obligation bond dollars for Maui to get the lion's share, she said.
The Kihei high school project is priority No. 4 out of 64 for the DOE's capital improvement projects' priority list for fiscal year 2010, said Neal Miyahira, administrator for the state Budget and Finance Department's Planning and Management Division.
"I'm glad for whatever steps occur," said Rep. Joe Bertram III, D-South Maui. "It might be an incremental step, but at least it's a step forward when usually we're taking steps backward at the state."
The DOE plans to use certificates of participation to get a company on board with a design-build contract, which is an increasingly popular alternative to state bonding, Baker said. The Department of Public Safety is pursuing that route to pay for the proposed jail in Puunene.
And, Bertram said, there are at least two companies that have expressed serious interest in building the Kihei high school. The first is Dowling Co., which built Kamalii Elementary School in Kihei in a similar design-build agreement with the state. The second is Absher Construction, a Washington state development firm owned by the father of a Wailea resident, Bertram said.
Bertram said he's asked the companies to partner up on the project.
"You can make some money on the deal, and you are also giving back to the community," Baker said. "And if you got the contract, it would create jobs. It would definitely create a lot of good will in the community for a developer."
The agricultural zoning and state land use designations for the site will need to be changed for the high school, but no one said they expect that to be a problem for such a popular project. Dozens of community members already expressed their support for the high school several years ago during a public-input process, Baker added.
"This school is just going to tie the whole community together," she said.
With the county about to build a regional park and large police substation in South Maui, the high school is the last missing piece, Baker said.
The state Department of Education's Kihei high school project manager has said he hoped to have a draft environmental impact statement completed by May. The study would examine the social, public works, archaeological and other affects of building the facility.
The high school also would be the first in the state to be a certified energy-efficient building under Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards.
The first architectural and artist renderings for Kihei high school as well as maps of the location can be found online on the Department of Health's Office of Environmental Quality Control Web site. To view the 78-page environmental impact statement preparation notice, go to oeqc.doh.hawaii.govShared20DocumentsEA_and_EIS_Online_Library/Maui/2000s/2009-11-08-MA-EISPN-Kihei-High-School.pdf.
* Chris Hamilton can be reached at chamilton@mauinews.com.
