The principal of one of the state’s top-performing elementary schools is hoping lawmakers will appropriate funding for new classrooms.
Dennis O’Brien, principal of E.B. de Silva Elementary School in Hilo, noted in a recent letter to the school’s parents and guardians that the school has received $3 million in design and planning funds “for four or five additional classrooms.”
“We’re a school that was designed for about 350, 360 students. Right now, we’re pushing 500. We need additional classroom space,” O’Brien told the Tribune-Herald on Thursday.
U.S. News &World Report magazine ranked de Silva No. 5 among the state’s public elementary schools, making it the top-ranked Neighbor Island public elementary school.
“We’re a high-achieving school, but I don’t know how long we can continue to achieve at that level if we’re running a very crowded campus, with classes running up to 30 students, in some cases,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien met last week with state Sen. Lorraine Inouye, a Hilo Democrat, and gave her a tour of the campus.
“She saw our needs. And she said she would support, not really our request, but our hope that we can get funding for construction,” O’Brien said. “But we know what happened on Maui. That may be a paramount need area for the entire state.”
Both Inouye and state Rep. Mark Nakashima, a Democrat whose district includes the school on Ainako Avenue, noted the state Council on Revenues decreased its tax revenue predictions for the current fiscal year because of a downturn in visitor spending in Hawaii after the August wildfires on Maui.
”Money is going to be tight for the upcoming Legislative session,” Inouye said. “Whatever is available for us to address the issues of the Lahaina fire, predominately for the Senate, I think, that will be addressed first.
“The need is great, though,” she added about de Silva. “It’s a growing campus.”
On the possibility of construction funds for the school being appropriated, Inouye said, “I don’t think that’s going to be available this year.”
“Plans and designs have got to start first,” she said. “I haven’t gotten any quotes as to what the construction is going to cost, but the planning and design has got to come first before we make any decisions (about) what it’s going to be.”
Nakashima said classroom construction for de Silva is No. 1 on his list of capital improvement funding priorities for the upcoming legislative session, which begins in January.
“There will still be funding for the schools and all of that, but it will be a matter of priority,” he said. “The Lahaina schools have been damaged to a point to where they need to be repaired — and that will definitely take priority over anything else.
“We’ll also need to see where revenue is when we start the session. The design and planning money was put in place before the fire.”
Nakashima said there haven’t been any recent construction cost projections for the de Silva classrooms.
“When we started all of this, it was about $15 million. And it’s been five years in the making now, so I would guesstimate $22 to $23 million now,” he said.
Nakashima has also toured the campus and described the overcrowding as “appreciable.”
O’Brien said the student population at the school continues to increase despite the fact it is located in “an aging community.”
“What’s happening is that a lot of young people with children are moving in with their parents, because it’s really hard to make a go of it in the community, right now.” he said. “We’re seeing a doubling up and tripling up of households.
“So, even though there’s not a whole lot of new homes being built in our district, we do have folks who are moving into it that way.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.