Pāhoa Elementary master plan draft could reshape campus over 20 years

After nearly eight years of delays, Pāhoa Elementary finally has a draft master plan that could change the campus in phases over the next two decades, adding classrooms and modernizing core spaces for families in Puna. The proposal calls for a new classroom building, an administration and library center, a cafeteria, an outdoor playground and a covered playcourt, a sign that the school on Pāhoa Village Road may finally be moving toward the kind of upgrades that have long been out of reach.

The Hawaii State Department of Education, Mitsunaga & Associates and PBR Hawaii and Associates presented the draft at a public meeting May 20 in the Pāhoa Elementary gymnasium, where community members were invited to weigh in. Additional comments were being accepted through May 31. Lead architect Romeo Gampong said the project was finally advancing after years of waiting, telling the newspaper that people can now see the wheels turning.

What slowed the plan was not a single setback but a systemwide backlog. The delay was tied to the Department of Education’s large inventory of repair and maintenance needs, revised estimates of unspent funds and pandemic-era disruptions that included supply-chain problems and permitting delays. The numbers show how hard it has been for school projects to move. The department received nearly $1 billion in capital improvement funds in fiscal years 2021 through 2023, yet spent less than 1 percent of its appropriations in fiscal 2023. The State of Hawaii Board of Education and the Hawaii State Auditor have also documented a broader funding crunch, including $44.1 million in general-fund carryover in the 2023 audit, equal to about 2.1 percent of recurring general-fund appropriations of $2.148 billion.

Karyn Yoneshige, a DOE project coordinator, said the full buildout could take as long as 20 years. That timeline matters in Puna, where Pāhoa Elementary serves seven major subdivisions in a rapidly growing rural community and still relies on some original buildings, including the gymnasium. The school was established in 1910, renamed Pāhoa High and Elementary School in 1914, and split into separate campuses beginning with the 1993-94 school year, when the elementary campus became Pāhoa Elementary School and the high school became Pāhoa High & Intermediate School.

The school’s own history says the campus receives Title I funds supporting a disadvantaged student population, and its School Community Council continues to advise the school’s academic and financial plan while hosting parent and community meetings. For Pāhoa families, the draft is more than a long-range sketch. It is the first real sign that the state’s slow-moving school-facilities system may finally be delivering on a promise made in 2018, when Gov. David Ige released $500,000 in capital improvement funds after support secured by Sen. Joy San Buenaventura.