KIHEI — Things are moving rapidly for Kulanihako’i High School athletics — and many other things — as the opening of the campus in north Kihei appears to be set for the fall.

Principal Halle Maxwell said last week that sports and extracurricular activities for the Manta Rays are a huge part of the transition to finally occupying the $120 million campus that will welcome a new freshmen class in August to go along with the 35 current ninth-graders who make up the school’s first class.

Currently, the small group of first-year high school students physically attend portable classrooms at Lokelani Intermediate School down the street. 

The KHS athletic director’s job was posted a week ago on the state Department of Education website — Maxwell and curriculum coordinator Lauren Lott have been surveying students all week to see what sports they are interested in participating in for the 2023-24 school year.

“We should be bringing an athletic director on board within the next several weeks,” Maxwell said.

There could be athletes clad in the Kulanihako’i silver and black colors as soon as the fall. With a projected enrollment of 185, the first student-athletes from the school could be in individual sports like cross country, bowling, or air riflery, but Maxwell is not discounting the possibility of fielding girls volleyball, cheerleading and football teams in the fall as well.

With only freshmen and sophomores on campus, girls volleyball would be at the junior varsity level and football would most likely be at the eight-player level, competing with small Maui Interscholastic League schools Molokai, Lanai, Hana and Seabury Hall.

“The plan is to offer all of those sports to our students, and what we’re going to do next is a survey of current and incoming students to see which sports they’re most interested in,” Maxwell said. “And we’ll focus on those sports for the fall, but all of them are on the table. So, every one of the sports that people are interested in and that we have enough people for, those team sports, then we’re going to get those going right away.”

Maxwell said the proposed on-campus football stadium is “considered a future phase” item for the school with no solid timeline yet set, but there are areas on campus suitable for some sports practices and nearby there are Maui County facilities for the school’s sports teams to practice and play.

Offering a full docket of sports is essential to the school’s vision going forward, Maxwell said.

“We want students who attend Kulanihako’i High School to have all the opportunities that they have at any other school and that includes athletics,” she said. “It is just a way to bring the community together and make our school a real center of the community and get everybody — not just parents of students or faculty members of the school — but all of the community members involved with our school.”

With Maui County facilities including a swimming pool, gym, baseball, softball and soccer fields nearby, Maxwell said her school will be working rapidly to acquire the needed county permits for practice and games. 

One of the first big challenges is finding coaches for the prospective sports. That process will begin soon.

“So, I’d really just like to get information out that we will be looking for coaches, we will have full athletic programs this coming school year,” Maxwell said. “So, if people are interested, especially in the fall sports, those particular sports … they should get in touch with me.”

The best way to contact Maxwell is via email at

halle.maxwell@k12.hi.us.

Maxwell said that the natural progression is to have several varsity teams in place for the 2024-25 school year. The beginning steps are already underway.

“We’re already talking to a uniform supplier to provide uniforms and all of that stuff, so we’re moving very quickly,” she said. “We need to order equipment as well.”

The first athletic director in Kulanihako’i High School history will have the chance to build the program from the get-go.

“I want to get the best candidate possible, someone who is really open to growing this program from the ground up,” she said.

Sports will not be the only extracurricular activities available for students at the newest public high school in the state, the first to open in Maui County since King Kekaulike in 1995.

Band, drama, clubs and community service involvement will be among the possibilities going forward at KHS.

“We’re ready to offer the full array,” Maxwell said. “We’re going to have honors and pre- (Advanced Placement) classes to get ready for the higher levels junior and senior years. We’re offering career and technology education courses, music, fine arts. We’re prepared to offer multiple languages. 

“For next year we’re prepared to offer a full array of the courses that they find at other high schools.”

Plans for sports, extracurricular activities and an array of courses are well underway as on March 22, Gov. Josh Green announced that students will be allowed to physically attend the new school after construction is completed and the DOE sets an opening date.

His comments came after an agreement was reached between the state and the county that will allow the DOE to receive a temporary certificate of occupancy from the county in exchange for the state temporarily indemnifying the county from liability claims — the county has long held off on issuing a certificate because the DOE has yet to build a pedestrian crossing required to open the school.

Some community members for years have argued for a grade-separated pedestrian crossing to keep students safe along Piilani Highway which fronts the school. The state Land Use Commission set the condition in 2013 that a grade-separated crossing had to be constructed before the campus could open.

But the school’s students, parents and the DOE pushed hard recently to have the school opened as initial facilities on the campus have been completed.

The Governor’s Office has said that school buses would safely transport the students to campus on an interim basis.

The DOE will continue to move forward with the requirement that it build an elevated pedestrian crosswalk, which is needed in order to receive a permanent certificate of occupancy, the Governor’s Office added.

The school has 14 teachers this year and Maxwell expects to have about 30 in the fall. She recently posted 18 positions on the DOE website.

Lott is the person coordinating the effort to pinpoint the direction for KHS.

“My position is working a lot with the students, to run the student-focus groups and get their feedback on a lot of things,” Lott said. “We’re working with the eighth-graders at Lokelani as well, they’re our student population. Sports is a part of it, but it also ranges on what they’re looking for in class experiences, teachers. 

“We’ve surveyed a lot of them to see what they wanted as far as interview questions were concerned, so students had input as far as our interview process as well,” added Lott who worked with Maxwell at Kihei Elementary School for 10 years prior to this first year at KHS.

“It’s a lot of fun, I love it,” Lott said of her position and the process of getting the school started.

With all the momentum, Maxwell said she can envision watching graduation from a yet-to-be-built football stadium in the not-too-distant future.

“I’m over the moon, this is the dream,” Maxwell said. “We’re still a school, Kulanihako’i High School still exists, we still have students doing amazing things, but a lot of the dream comes with the facility, having the space to do project-based learning, to have a wide variety of courses for the students to choose from, and that’s something we can’t do without space and rooms.

“So, to finally to be able to be up on the campus — and it’s a beautiful campus — to be able to finally start the part of the school experience that connects to the community, to have more courses for the students to choose from, it really is going to be very exciting for everyone who attends.”

* Staff Writer Robert Collias can be reached at rcollias@mauinews.com.