WAILUKU — A typical high school day for freshman Pedro Deus consists of rotating between three portable classrooms and eating an occasionally cold lunch at 1 p.m. after intermediate school students have already chowed down.

Deus and his classmates, including Tyler Kaito Sammon, also try to play soccer or football in a “small square grass area” next to a fire lane at Lokelani Intermediate in Kihei, where they take their high school classes.

It’s a far cry from the multimillion-dollar Kulanihako’i High School campus they thought they would be attending. Initial buildings for the campus, which sits on 77 acres mauka of the intersection of Piilani Highway and Kulanihakoi Street, have been completed.

But the school sits idle and empty, as the state Department of Education has not completed a grade-separated crossing that the state Land Use Commission set as a condition of the school’s construction back in 2013. Some community members have been adamant that the crossing be constructed for the safety of students and the community before the school opens.

The Land Use Commission has upheld the condition, even as the DOE sought to amend it. Maui County has also not signed off on a temporary certificate of occupancy, citing the unfulfilled condition.

But students, parents and supporters say they want the campus to open and that they have measures in place to keep students safe.

“It feels weird still being in the same school. It would be nice to finally be at the new campus and have more space,” Deus said in an interview on Thursday.

The 15-year-old also wants to compete in sports such as wrestling, soccer and football, which he thought would be a possibility at the new school. Instead, he is stuck at his old intermediate school.

Fellow freshman Chacelen Wong added that she feels “irritated” by the situation.

“We’ve been on that campus (Lokelani) for three years prior, and now high school. We are just there for a whole ‘nother year when we have a campus that is ready for us to use and we have a safe way to get on and off,” Wong said.

The three students said they decided to attend the new high school because they wanted to be with classmates they’ve known for a long time and because they had hoped the school would be opened sometime in their freshman year.

They said they would likely leave for another school if Kulanihako’i High doesn’t open soon, as they hope to play sports, join band and participate in other extracurriculars.

Deus, Sammon and Wong said that they and the other 30 or so freshmen have pledged to not cross Piilani Highway, one of the main concerns among community members who want an overpass or underpass so students don’t have to venture onto the busy four-lane highway.

Sammon said there are other high schools also near high-traffic areas, such as Baldwin High School along Kaahumanu Avenue, which has made do with traffic signals and crosswalks.

The students also pointed to the two shuttles the new school has that could help transport students so they would not need to walk.

Rebecca Hill, a Kihei mom who would like to see her seventh grader, who’s now at a private school, attend the new high school in the future, said, “We didn’t want a roundabout and we didn’t want an overpass — all we wanted was the school open.”

She added that a lot of media attention has been placed on groups such as the Kihei Community Association and others who want the grade-separated crossing but may not have school-aged children.

Because the families are busy, “we don’t have time to go to the community meetings.”

“So unfortunately we have not been as politically active in the discussion as we should have been. But parents want a (high) school in Kihei,” she said on Thursday.

On Friday afternoon, Hill and members of the newly formed Kihei Parents Hui, which includes parents of those attending Kulanihako’i High, held a sign-waving rally near the Piilani Highway roundabout in front of the school urging for it be opened.

Maui County spokesperson Mahina Martin said the county has been contacted by the newly formed hui and will be meeting with members.

“The discussion is welcomed,” Martin said.

Hill said she feels that the government is being “a little heavy handed” and that other students and other schools also cross busy streets and highways, but Kulanihako’i students cannot even ride a shuttle bus to school.

“I think parents should make that decision, that it should be up to the parents if they are willing to accept that risk,” she said.

Hill said she accepted that risk when some of her children went to Kihei Charter and had to cross Piilani Highway at a signaled intersection. Kihei Charter is also mauka of Piilani Highway.

For the parents, they just want a typical high school experience for their kids outside of the crossing debate.

“I just don’t want the kids to be in the middle of politics. The kids should be enjoying their high school,” Mitsue Okamura Eldredge, Sammon’s mother, said Thursday.

She said the community has watched the school being built and has seen close-up photos of the buildings. She called the campus “beautiful.”

But now, she worries the school may sit idle for the next five years. DOE officials have said an overpass would normally take five years to complete.

On Friday, DOE Deputy Superintendent Curt Otaguro said via email that a design consultant has been contracted for the pedestrian overpass and they anticipate a completed design in late summer.

An overpass at Kulanihakoi Street was selected from among the crossing alternatives presented to the community last year.

Kulanihako’i High Principal Halle Maxwell also said in an emailed statement from the DOE that the school is looking forward to welcoming the next ninth grade class next school year.

The school is also working to secure a location that will support the growing student body and programs, she said.

It is also committed to providing shuttle bus transportation for all students within the walk zone that normally would not qualify for standard school bus service.

“At this point, so many mistakes have been made on so many levels,” Hill said. “We need to put the kids first, let them in the school and let the adults argue about the politics and put the kids into the school until we figure out a solution.”

At a recent LUC meeting Feb. 9, DOE Superintendent Keith Hayashi apologized over the process and decisions made regarding Kulanihako’i High. Land Use Commissioner Lee Ohigashi of Maui also noted at the meeting that DOE’s moves have resulted in the students “being denied to attend the school” and created a somewhat “hostage situation” with the commission, students and others in the middle while they wait for the school to open.

Sammon, one of the first freshmen, hopes conditions improve for the next group of students.

“I feel like they should open the campus this school year, because I feel like the new freshmen that will be coming, I feel they should not go through stuff like this, like we are going through right now,” Sammon said. “I don’t want them to feel the stuff we are experiencing now. I just want them to go up to the campus without problems.”

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.