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What would motivate a publicly funded Hawaii state agency, especially one in charge of our schoolchildren, to work for nearly a decade to prevent the safest method for those children to access a high school?
Background: After many years of waiting, the state Department of Education decided to build the new high school for South Maui on the "wrong" side of the Pi'ilani Highway. Wrong because virtually all keiki in South Maui would have to reach it from the makai side and they chose the mauka side as the site.
So, when the DOE applied to have the land classification of the site legally changed, the request was granted, but one condition on that change was that before the school opened, there had to be a way to access it without walking across a four-lane highway, so an overpass or underpass.
Now that the school is almost ready to open after a decade, the DOE has made no attempt to achieve it. They never sought funding from the Legislature. They have offered numerous reasons to avoid the legal requirement for years, but each was soundly rejected.
Why would they do this? Do they want all parents to have to drive their children to the school and exacerbate the already congested Pi’ilani Highway vehicle traffic as it would be unsafe for the kids to walk or bicycle to school? Is it just arrogance again reasonable imposed conditions? Something else? Baffling!
Mike Moran
Kihei