At Kealakehe Elementary Faculty on the Large Island, functioning bogs are laborious to seek out.
College students journey throughout campus to achieve working bathrooms — generally leading to embarrassing accidents — and poor plumbing has led to sewage leaking by way of classroom ceilings, in keeping with greater than a dozen pages of testimony from mother and father and lecturers at a latest Board of Schooling assembly.
“My second-grade baby now feels anxious day-after-day at college — not due to exams or social pressures, however as a result of they fear about having an accident because of the lengthy stroll to the one accessible restroom,” mother or father Linsi Nuzum wrote to the board.
Kealakehe Elementary may see some enhancements later this yr because the schooling division works on fixing the plumbing in one in all its buildings, in keeping with a statewide facilities dashboard. However related restore tasks could also be more durable for the division to fund and execute within the coming years, after lawmakers gave faculty officers a lot much less building cash than they requested in January.
The brand new state budget, signed into regulation on Monday, units the price range for college upkeep and building at roughly $490 million over the subsequent two years — $1.4 billion lower than what the Hawaiʻi Division of Schooling initially requested.
Lawmakers had additionally voted to present $150 million to the DOE in a separate fund to help preventative upkeep efforts. However Gov. Josh Inexperienced lowered that fund to $60 million over the subsequent two years by way of a line-item veto, mentioned Makana McClellan, the governor’s director of communications.
DOE continues to be figuring out what tasks can be affected by the cuts, communications director Nanea Ching mentioned in an emailed assertion. Firstly of the legislative session, the division had recognized greater than 100 precedence tasks starting from upgrades to Kaimukī Excessive Faculty’s softball area to sewer enhancements at King Kekaulike Excessive Faculty. Roughly 20% of Hawaiʻi faculties are greater than a century outdated.
The reductions to DOE’s price range come amid scrutiny and skepticism from lawmakers, who say faculty leaders must show that they will efficiently handle building funds earlier than receiving extra money and adaptability in methods to spend it.
In 2023, DOE sparked the ire of legislators and the general public when it proposed giving up nearly half a billion in funds that may go towards tasks like new lecture rooms and repairs to campus roofs and fireplace alarm programs.
In early 2024, the division reported a backlog of $2 billion in unspent building funds, citing allowing delays and provide chain shortages.
A Large Funding Request
Superintendent Keith Hayashi requested the Legislature this yr for extra flexibility in spending the DOE’s price range. However some lawmakers balked at giving up control over faculty building funds and fulfilling DOE’s giant price range request, citing the division’s continued struggles to get new tasks off the bottom.
“Respectfully, the division has not demonstrated the capability to have the ability to prioritize these tasks in a approach that’s going to dent into the necessity that we have now,” Home Schooling Chair Justin Woodson mentioned at first of session.
Rep. Lisa Kitagawa, a member of the Home Finance Committee, mentioned the division’s unique price range request was past what the state may present. Lawmakers solely had $1.8 billion typically obligation bonds that might help state building, she mentioned, and funding all of the tasks DOE requested would depart no cash left for different businesses.
Lawmakers targeted as a substitute on funding prime priorities for the DOE, like campus security and upkeep, Kitagawa mentioned. The division didn’t obtain funding in two areas associated to the planning and design of colleges and non permanent services, like campus portables.
However even within the classes that acquired funding, the cash fell in need of DOE’s unique ask. Whereas DOE requested $75 million to extend faculty capability for overcrowded faculties — together with including new buildings to Hōlualoa Elementary on Large Island and ending building at Kūlanihākoʻi Excessive Faculty on Maui — lawmakers supplied simply $3 million.
Funding for compliance tasks, like constructing women’ athletic locker rooms and renovating campuses to be accessible for college kids with disabilities, fell from $200 million in DOE’s request to $16 million within the last model of the price range. Lawmakers additionally put aside cash for particular person compliance tasks within the price range, together with the design and building of locker rooms at Campbell Excessive Faculty.
Most of DOE’s building funds had been restricted to the primary yr of the two-year price range cycle, which means faculty leaders might want to return to the Legislature and request extra money subsequent yr. Kitagawa mentioned she desires the division to return with updates on its spending earlier than lawmakers put aside extra money for college building.
“Due to every little thing that occurred with the massive lapses prior to now, we actually needed to be sure that the DOE may very well be accountable with the cash,” Kitagawa mentioned. “We did attempt to work with them to have the ability to give them that flexibility, whereas additionally ensuring that they’re making good use of taxpayer {dollars}.”
Divided Management
The lowered funding will make it more durable for the division to finish its precedence listing of faculty building tasks, DOE public works administrator Jadine Urasaki mentioned throughout a latest Board of Schooling assembly. The tasks vary from enhancements to Kailua Excessive Faculty’s observe area to expansions to Webling Elementary Faculty’s administration constructing.
“$323 million doesn’t get us that far,” Urasaki mentioned in regards to the funds DOE acquired for the upcoming yr.
By comparability, DOE requested roughly $1.5 billion at school building funds for the 2023-25 price range, and lawmakers supplied $747 million within the first yr of that price range cycle.
Even with the accessible funding from the Legislature, DOE has restricted capability to make use of the cash for tasks it desires. The ultimate pages of the price range specify 39 tasks lawmakers need the DOE to finish earlier than shifting on to its personal listing, though there’s some overlap between lawmakers’ necessities and the division’s priorities, Urasaki mentioned.
Two of DOE’s prime tasks — new elementary faculties in East Kapolei and Lahaina — acquired no funding in any respect, regardless that West Oʻahu is combating overcrowding in its schools and West Maui wants a faculty to exchange the one which burned down in 2023.
However the price range included funding for different tasks that weren’t in DOE’s unique request, together with $72 million for the planning, design and building of centralized kitchens throughout the state.
DOE does have extra flexibility in utilizing its preventative upkeep fund, which was lowered from $150 million to $60 million in Inexperienced’s veto. The funds can go towards the upkeep of campuses and smaller tasks, like repainting buildings or carpeting lecture rooms, Kitagawa mentioned.
Randy Moore, who oversaw DOE services from 2006 to 2012 and once more within the second half of final yr, mentioned the DOE will nonetheless have the ability to run its faculties with lowered funding. However laying aside points like decaying services will solely make the issues dearer to repair sooner or later, he mentioned.
Rep. Amy Perruso mentioned she understands her fellow lawmakers’ skepticism towards the DOE and their efforts to carry the division extra accountable, however slicing funding isn’t the reply. Faculties are already struggling to complete projects that assist them adjust to federal anti-discrimination legal guidelines, she mentioned, and others are in determined want of fundamental upkeep to maintain college students secure.
Whereas well-intended, she mentioned, lawmakers have develop into overly concerned within the services course of, holding DOE from prioritizing faculties most in want of upgrades and repairs.
Civil Beat’s schooling reporting is supported by a grant from Chamberlin Household Philanthropy.
