PAHOA, Hawaii » Students contending with a lava-prodded transfer from Pahoa High to Keaau High are using mapping technology to acclimate to their new campus.
On Friday hundreds of students from Pahoa schools, which continue to face threats tied to the June 27 lava flow, began attending other area schools. Additional students displaced by the lava will start attending school at a temporary site or another area school next week.
To help ease the stress tied to switching schools, Brendan Brennan, an educator at University Laboratory School on Oahu, led some students at Keaau High in a fun and interactive activity that aims to help the new students feel at home.
Groups of students Friday canvassed the Keaau campus with a camera that takes 360-degree photographs. They snapped shots of everything from hallways to classrooms. The pictures were then uploaded to a website using Google Images to serve as a private map for new students and their families.
"We thought we could help Keaau High School kids use mapping technology to help these new kids know their way around," said Brennan, noting that his school focuses on research education and problem-solving.
"Here we have a local problem: More than a hundred displaced kids are being separated from friends, school, teachers and their community. That’s a huge problem," he said.
Dean Cevallos, Keaau High’s principal, said more than 100 new students were welcomed with open arms Friday.
"I wanted to make sure that today was a day just for them so they could come and explore the campus," he said. "I wanted to do the best I could to tell them that here you’re ohana, too. You will be accepted."
Since the June 27 lava flow started threatening Hawaii island’s Pahoa town, the students’ lives have been turned upside down, Cevallos said.
"They’re having to leave everything they know; actually, it’s been ripped out from underneath them," he said.
Schools in the area have been closed since late October in order to prepare for the relocation of students from the Pahoa Complex and Keonepoko — a school in the projected path of the lava flow.
About 850 Pahoa Complex students north of the flow will attend Keaau starting Monday.
The transition process is affecting about 1,700 students and 300 employees.
The school week wrapped up with lava stalled about 480 feet from Pahoa Village Road where it hasn’t advanced for a week. On Friday, Hawaii County Civil Defense said it was another quiet day for the lava flow and that the most recent activity occurred 1.5 miles from Apaa Street where lava has advanced about 100 yards since Thursday.
Hawaii County Civil Defense Director Darryl Oliveira said the county has not determined a date to reopen the road and that thermal imagery shows there’s still some activity at the stalled front of the flow.
Donalyn Dela Cruz, director of communications for the state Department of Education, said the combining of Pahoa and Keaau High students is going smoothly, especially given their history of school rivalry.
"If you’re the rival high school and you’ve been a Cougar (at Keaau) and now have to be (a) Dagger (at Pahoa), it can be a little sensitive," Dela Cruz said.
But students Friday appeared to be happy to be on the same team.
Keaau freshman Reichael Abella said she’s looking forward to helping the new students Monday.
"Today I told them ‘good morning’ and asked them if they needed any help," she said.
Keaau senior Jasmine Pedamada said she’s also excited to offer to help new students get settled on campus "and maybe make some new friends."
Meanwhile, the Keaau administrators are keeping track of their additional expenditures taken on during the transition, Cevallos said.
"Right now the state is … saying, ‘Order what you need, and we’ll put it on a lava account,’" he said.
Dela Cruz said state officials are hoping they can get reimbursed federally. President Barack Obama on Monday signed a disaster declaration for public assistance, which will provide federal funding for emergency work done in preparation for the lava.
