Should Gov. Linda Lingle approve a $3.6-billion supplemental state budget on her desk, the amount included in that document for a new cafeteria at Kilauea School would only be enough to build the dining area of the facility. The $2.1
Should Gov. Linda Lingle approve a $3.6-billion supplemental state budget on her desk, the amount included in that document for a new cafeteria at Kilauea School would only be enough to build the dining area of the facility.
The $2.1 million in the budget for construction of a new cafeteria is only enough for half the cafeteria, not including the kitchen.
Educators, parents and students have waited for years for funding to build the entire cafeteria to meet the needs of the school’s growing population.
The building, if built, also would be the only large emergency shelter on the North Shore.
In the future, school officials will have to ask the state Legislature for additional funds to build the kitchen, said Sanford Beppu, a state Department of Education capital-improvement projects planner.
DOE officials would have to request additional “construction funds” for the kitchen in upcoming DOE budgets submitted to the state Legislature, said Beppu.
The exact amount for the work on the kitchen has to be assessed, Beppu said.
With both phases of the facility completed, the new cafeteria could be operational by spring 2007.
Educators, parents and past and present students at Kilauea School have sought construction of a new cafeteria for years.
When built, the facility would allow the entire student body to eat school meals at one time, and to enjoy school activities like assemblies all together under one roof.
Kilauea School Principal Fred Rose said a new cafeteria has been something the Kilauea community has sought for many years.
Students now eat in shifts in a usable but cramp cafeteria at the school. The school has an enrollment of 320 students, including some preschool students, Rose said.
The new cafeteria, when built, also would provide another meeting hall on the North Shore for organizations and community groups.
In addition, if hardened, the facility could be used as an emergency shelter from man-made and natural disasters.
Should the first phase of the cafeteria project be implemented, DOE officials would close down the existing kitchen, and would consider the option of having meals brought to the school while DOE officials seek funding to build the new kitchen, Beppu said.
The $2.1 million for the cafeteria is part of $20 million that state Sen. Gary Hooser, D-Kaua‘i-Ni‘ihau, and state Reps. Hermina Morita, D-North Kaua‘i; Ezra Kanoho, D-East and South Kaua‘i; and Bertha C. Kawakami, D-West Kaua‘i-Ni‘ihau, had aggressively sought for capital-improvement projects.
Last October, the Kaua‘i legislators led a group of nearly 30 legislators from the state House Finance Committee and Senate Ways and Means Committee on a tour of Kilauea School to hear the concerns parents, Rose, teachers and students had about the need for a new cafeteria.
The $2.1 million in funds are part of a $3.6-billion statewide supplemental budget that was approved recently by the state Legislature and awaits approval or veto by Lingle.
Then, she would have to release the funds, something she did not do with around $300,000 in design funds approved last year for the new cafeteria.
Her rationale then was not to release design funds if there were no construction funds approved.
DOE officials had originally asked the state Legislature to appropriate $5.1 million to build the entire cafeteria, but were told only $2.1 million would be available, Beppu said.
With Lingle’s release of construction and design funds to start work on the cafeteria, Beppu said the $250,000 would be used for design and planning work, a process that would take a year.
The construction work would likely go out to bid three to four months after the planning and design work is done, Beppu said.
The work on the dining area will most likely take place within 12 to 18 months. At the latest, the dining room could be ready to use by spring 2007.
The new cafeteria would be bigger than the existing one, but its eventual size will depend on the amount of funding that would be available, Beppu said.
“We want to be sure that we can use the money to help the school,” he said.
DOE plans also call for the existing school cafeteria to be converted into an administrative building, Beppu also said.
The proposed construction of the dining room and the kitchen of the cafeteria are “in support” of an existing master plan for the school, Beppu said.
The intent behind the plan remains intact, although the funding for various projects are higher priorities than those projected for a master plan that had been developed by consultants Yamasato, Fujiwara and Aoki for the DOE in the late 1990s.
The consultant estimated the projects in the master plan could be developed at a total cost of $6.8 million.
That figure is no longer valid, Beppu said, but the consultants recommended numerous projects in the master plan for North Shore school.
The recommendations included relocating the existing library, constructing a new playcourt, constructing a new parking lot, relocating seven portable buildings, and initiating electrical work.
Other proposals called for building covered walkways and constructing three new, one-story classroom buildings.
Staff Writer Lester Chang may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) or mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net.
