Local News

Lahaina’s elementary school students return to shared campus

The Maui News

Hundreds of students from Lahaina's two elementary schools arrived on a shared campus Wednesday after the Aug. 8 wildfire destroyed one of the schools and displaced students and staff.

About 300 students returned to Princess Nahi'ena'ena Elementary School, which is sharing its campus with more than 200 students from King Kamehameha III Elementary School, whose Front Street facilities were damaged beyond repair by the fire. The displaced students are using a mixture of traditional classrooms and tent structures.

The two elementary schools are the last of the Lahaina public school campuses to physically reopen this week, following Lahainaluna High School on Monday and Lahaina Intermediate on Tuesday. The schools have been closed since the fires, with some students enrolling in other schools, others opting for distance learning and Lahainaluna students sharing a campus with Kulanihako'i High in Kihei.

"We have really been working toward this day for a whole quarter and it's finally arrived," Rebecca Winkie, superintendent of the Hana-Lahainaluna-Lanai-Molokai Complex Area, said in a state Department of Education news release Wednesday. "Now we're going to get back to a sense of normalcy. The kids can learn and have their supports on campus and just the socialization and being with their peers, I think, is going to make all the difference."

Media were not allowed on campus during the reopening days.

About a dozen staff and community members, including ones dressed as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, lined the entrance of the campus with signs and cheered as parents dropped off students. Both principals helped to direct traffic and assist students with check-in. Orientation was held for kindergarteners and their parents, and each school performed a morning oli, or chant, on their respective sides of the campus.

"Although we're two different schools on one campus, we are one community, and that's the most important thing. ... Our teachers have welcomed them, our staff has welcomed them, and for those from King Kamehameha III -- welcome home," Princess Nahi'ena'ena Elementary Principal Gary Kanamori said.

Ian Haskins recently joined King Kamehameha III as principal. The former vice principal at Princess Nahi'ena'ena has more than two decades of teaching and administrative experience in Hawaii.

"This morning went very smoothly, the parents had smiles on their faces, the kids were ecstatic to be here and we had lots of faculty and staff to receive them, get them enrolled in their classes and get them where they need to be," Haskins said. "The classes were set up very well for temporary classrooms and I believe we're going to get through this."

On the east side of the Princess Nahi'ena'ena campus, eight high-quality tent structures equipped with power, air conditioning and laminate floors have been installed in an open field to add classroom spaces for King Kamehameha III students. Grades K-1 are in classrooms on the Nahi'ena'ena campus, while grades 2-5 are in the structures. Twelve portable toilets, each with individual air conditioning units, and chilled water stations have also been added to the temporary shared site.

King Kamehameha III Elementary is expected to operate out of the interim site until a temporary campus begin built at the future Pulelehua housing development near Kapalua Airport opens.

Parents like Victor Akau'ola, father of a kindergartener and first grader at Princess Nahi'ena'ena, were excited to bring their children to campus for the first day of school on Wednesday.

"The continued normalcy is what the kids need," he said. "They need that to get their minds off of things. This is part of the growth of a community."