WAILUKU - The state Department of Education will hold a community meeting Monday to provide information and gather input on school attendance boundaries for the new Puu Kukui Elementary School.
The meeting will be at 6 p.m. in Baldwin High School's Multipurpose Room.
The new school is expected to take up to 550 students in grades kindergarten through 5 and help ease crowding at Central Maui schools. The eight-building complex will be located on 14 acres mauka of the Oheo subdivision on property provided by Kehalani Mauka LLC. It is planned to open for the 2013-14 school year.
Some Kehalani families have expressed concerns that school boundaries might be drawn so that their children are assigned to a different school.
Complex Area Superintendent Bruce Anderson said Wednesday that a number of factors would be considered when drawing the boundaries.
"One of our priorities in this case is, as much as possible, try to keep the residents of Kehalani attending Puu Kukui," he said. "But it's something we've got to look at."
But he noted that public school officials also had to consider the best interest of the entire district, not just Kehalani residents.
When developers provide land for schools as a condition of their project approvals, they can't set conditions for how it's used, he said.
"When schools are built, they're built for the community, not the subdivision," he said.
Anderson said he met twice with members of the Kehalani Community Association to discuss the issue.
At Monday's meeting, school officials will present a recommendation for the district boundaries, then take public testimony on that proposal.
The department's final decision will be released at a later date.
For more information on Wailuku-area district boundaries and to provide comments on the plan, go online to www.wailukuelementary.weebly.com; pomaikai.k12. hi.us; or notes.mauido1.k12.hi.us/PUBLIC/MauiSurv.nsf.
