A state Department of Education official says allowing private developers to build on school property could be one way to raise money to rebuild some of Hawaii’s aging schools.

Randy Moore, assistant superintendent with the department’s Office of School Facilities and Support Services, used Queen Kaahumanu Elementary School on the corner of Beretania and Piikoi streets as an example of a school in a dense urban area where some of its land could be used for a condominium. The school is surrounded by four streets, allowing for separate entrances to keep the school and the condominium separate. The condominium would then generate taxes that the school currently doesn’t pay and some of those funds could also be used to improve other schools.

Moore said the idea was just a local example of what one presenter spoke about during a conference Saturday on improving Hawaii’s school buildings. He said Hawaii has about 260 schools and that half of them are more than 50 years old.

Mary Filardo, one of the presenters at the conference at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, brought her experience of using the land’s value to rebuild a school in Washington, D.C.

Her nonprofit, the 21st Century School Fund, found that Hawaii has ranked last in the country in spending on capital school construction for the past four years. It was 49th for the 10 years before that, according to the organization, which develops policy and research on school facilities.

"I think you guys have many, many years of deferred maintenance and real neglect of your school facilities," she said. "You need a big solution because you’ve got a big problem."

She said studies show poor facilities affect learning in the classroom. For example, more children are affected by allergies and asthma and miss school when ventilation is poor. They also get sleepy when classrooms have stale air.

A study by Yale University researchers released in November showed that when several low-income schools in New Haven, Conn., were renovated, students performed better, improved their attendance and felt more motivated, she said. The teachers were also more motivated, and the energy for learning and schoolwork carried back home.

"The parents had more motivation," she said.

Filardo began a campaign in 1989 to improve the condition of her children’s school in Washington, D.C., by finding a developer to build an apartment building on the school’s property. In 2001, a developer completed a 208-unit apartment building on the school property and a new three-story school building.

Filardo said Hawaii could renovate its schools using the same public-private method.

"Government has a lot of assets besides just the cash that comes in," she said, referring to land ownership, zoning laws and taxing authority. "You learn to leverage the other assets of the government."

She said the hard part is getting people involved to support the changes and work with the government and developers.

The Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs, a public policy think tank, organized the conference to gather ideas and start a discussion on ways to rebuild the state’s school facilities for 21st-century standards, said Alan Oshima, a HIPA board member.

He said he believed the state could improve the statewide school system by working with private developers.

"Hawaii has such valuable real estate, especially in the urban core and in some resort areas," he said. "If you start using the land more efficiently, and you find some financing mechanisms that can provide a dedicated source of financing, then you can work on all the schools no matter where they’re located because you want that equity. You don’t want it all to be in the high-density areas. You want it statewide."