Last school year, Farrington High School teachers Cherisse Sen and Carly Ibara were "floating" instructors within the school’s sports industry academy, with no fixed classrooms or dedicated office space.

"The hardest part of being a floating teacher is not being able to tell students, ‘If you need help, I’ll be here,’ because we don’t have a home base," said Ibara, who teaches English within the academy that helps juniors and seniors explore potential careers in such areas as sports medicine, journalism and marketing.

On Monday, Farrington opened a $2.3 million redesigned wing that will house three of the school’s vocational learning academies: business, sports industry and law and justice.

The investment supports the concept of so-called small learning communities, where large schools are organized into smaller units to personalize learning and improve academic achievement.

With 2,400 students, Farrington is one of the state’s largest public schools. It’s also one of the oldest. The campus was built five years before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The newly renovated two-story buildings — designed by local firm Bowers Kubota Consulting — now boast state-of-the-art classrooms, a forensics and chemistry lab, offices for teachers and counselors, and an open courtyard modeled after elements of college campuses.

The new school year starts today for Farrington’s upperclassmen.

"This is better for us as teachers to collaborate and better help the kids," said Sen, who teaches math and leadership in the sports academy.

Schools Superintendent Kathryn Mata­yo­shi described Farrington as a leader in the area of small learning communities, or essentially schools within a school. Farrington’s other academies focus on higher education or careers in culinary arts, engineering, creative arts and technology, health and teaching.

"Students today learn in different ways, and the environment they learn in needs to reflect that," Mata­yo­shi said.

State Sen. Jill Tokuda (D, Kailua-Kaneohe), chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, said the redesigned space "marries the physical environment with academic goals."

She added, "It’s a product of how teachers want to teach and how students want to learn. It’s going to literally allow the learning environment to enhance the academic goals of the school."

School officials say they have been working on the concept for the new wing for nine years.

"Now we get to have facilities where teaching and learning can be bumped up to another level," Principal Al Car­ga­nilla said, "facilities where we can collaborate, where we can team teach, where our kids can really be proud of what they have."

Senate President Donna Mercado Kim, who graduated from Farrington, credited school officials for lobbying the Legislature for the funds to upgrade the campus.

"You’ve got to have the right administrators here to have the vision and ask and plant the vision with us," Kim (D, Kapalama-Halawa) said.

State Sen. Glenn Wakai, whose district includes Farrington’s Kalihi campus, said it’s important for schools to adapt to student needs, in this case acknowledging that college isn’t for everyone.

"These days it’s all about college prep, but college isn’t the right fit for every kid," Wakai (D, Kalihi-Salt Lake) said. "This way, before they even set foot on a college campus, they’re getting exposed to different disciplines and a taste of what society has to offer."

The school is also in line for additional improvements.

The Department of Education in 2009 selected Farrington as the first public school for a campus-wide renovation as the department began planning redevelopment efforts for its older high schools. The department has since created a long-range plan that calls for new athletic facilities and other improvements at Farrington. Legislators have approved $15 million for the first phase of those projects.

Raymond L’Heureux, assistant superintendent for school facilities, said the department will use concepts from Farrington’s redesign as a template to upgrade aging schools to meet 21st-century learning needs.

"Farrington is one of our iconic high schools. It’s in a densely populated community and has a real need and requirement for improving learning environments," L’Heu­reux said.