Campus makes the grade as fast-tracked project

State education officials hope a new public school set to open next week in Kapolei can serve as a model for fast-tracking construction projects while containing costs.

Ho‘okele Elementary, adjacent to Kapolei High School, is Hawaii’s first public school constructed using the so-called design-build method, a streamlined delivery system where the design and construction services are handled by a single entity — in this case, Kiewit.

The $38.3 million project was completed within 16 months of breaking ground, using $40 million legislators appropriated for construction. The school will welcome approximately 500 students for the 2015-16 school year, which begins July 29.

Publicly funded projects in general are infamous for taking longer — and costing more — than expected, often getting tied up in bureaucratic red tape. DOE schools are no exception.

“I opened a new school in 1990,” said Board of Education member Maggie Cox, a former principal on Kauai. “It took 10 years to build. It was finished in 2000.”

Officials say new schools typically take a minimum of three years to plan and at least two years to build.

Dann Carlson, the DOE’s assistant superintendent for school facilities and support services, said it’s exciting to finally have a design-build project “under our belt.”

“This is a great evidence of the timeliness we think we can conduct projects with. If you were here 17 months ago, this was a dirt field,” Carlson said Tuesday, following a tour for lawmakers and media at the new school. “And to be able to build this in a 16-month period — particularly for the DOE — is quite a feat.”

He said going the design-build route isn’t ideal for all projects, but noted “phenomenal” cost and timing advantages over the so-called “low bid” method the DOE typically uses.

“We’re managing procurement laws, making sure we’re doing the right thing,” he said. “And sometimes that’s the big challenge, too: How do we live within the structure we have to live within for good reason but at the same time try and get creative to figure out better ways to do it? I could point to many projects that we have out there where we had to go with the lowest bidder, and because of that we’re sometimes stuck with projects that take way too long.”

To highlight some of the cost advantages, Carlson provided BOE members with a cost analysis comparison of Ho‘okele Elementary and Maui’s Pu‘u Kukui Elementary, which opened in Wailuku in 2013.

The Maui school is smaller and cost $3.4 million less overall but ended up costing more per square foot, more per acre and more per student to build than Ho‘okele.

Ho‘okele Principal Laureen Dunn said the new campus will help alleviate overcrowding at neighboring schools in Oahu’s fastest-growing region. Kapolei Elementary, for example, which has been operating as a year-round, multitrack school with 1,100 students, will convert to a regular, single-track school with the opening of Ho‘okele.

At full capacity the new school will be able to accommodate 750 students.

The 123,000-square-foot school features seven buildings centered around a main courtyard. Exteriors of the buildings feature colorful accent walls, including purple for the library and technology center, teal for the cafeteria and orange for a dedicated arts and sciences building.

The buildings are designed to be “learning platforms.” Exposed piping in the ceiling, for example, will help students learn about energy concepts. The campus was designed to meet energy-efficiency standards and also features air-conditioned classrooms, wireless Internet, glass walls to promote transparency, ergonomic seating, flexible/movable learning spaces, gardens and a covered play court.

Special-education preschool teacher Natalie Hepting said she’s spent “every single day” of her summer break setting up her new classroom. She said she appreciates the new school having dedicated bathroom facilities for her special-needs students along with a miniature stove for simple cooking lessons and a tricycle track and play area outside.

Dunn said the name Ho‘okele, which means navigator or wayfinder in Hawaiian, was selected by a group of community stakeholders to convey the idea of navigating 21st-century learning.

“When you think of the future and technology, and if you look at students as navigators of their own learning with teachers being more like facilitators, we thought the name was really appropriate,” Dunn said.

She said the school will have a one-to-one device program that provides either an iPad or Chromebook for every student.

“We want to do more project-based learning, too, because when you talk about 21st-century learning, a lot of times people think of just devices, but it’s more than that,” she said. “It’s also about the learning. That’s where the collaboration comes in, the communicating with your peers, and creative problem-solving. So we’re excited to have a different academic approach here.”