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Elementary school at Schofield to get $70M federal grant

COURTESY SOLOMON ELEMENTARY

Solomon Elementary School was one of several public schools on Oahu military bases ranked in a 2011 study of Department of Defense school facilities.

The Solomon Elementary School campus on Schofield Barracks in Wahiawa is expected to get a major overhaul with the help of a federal grant totaling more than $70 million.

The office of Sen. Brian Schatz, who is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced the $70,248,901 grant from the Department of Defense’s Office of Economic Adjustment.

“The students at Schofield need a safe, well-maintained school environment to learn and grow,” Schatz said in a statement. “These much-needed funds will help Solomon Elementary build a better school and better futures for every student.”

Schatz said the funding will be used to demolish aging buildings and add new facilities at the school, which has 933 students enrolled in prekindergarten through grade 5 this school year.

The elementary campus was one of several public schools on Oahu military bases ranked in a 2011 study of Department of Defense school facilities. Schools were rated on their physical condition and capacity to accommodate students, and the worst-rated schools were invited to apply for federal grants.

Solomon had ranked 28th worst among the 160 schools studied nationwide.

The other Hawaii schools cited in the report included Daniel K. Inouye Elementary (ranked ninth worst), also on Schofield Barracks; Mokapu Elementary (33rd worst) at Marine Corps Base Hawaii; and Shafter Elementary (36th worst) at Fort Shafter.

Inouye Elementary recently completed a $33 million renovation project — $26.6 million from a Defense Department grant and $6.6 million in state matching funds — that added several new buildings and upgraded facilities at the nearly 60-year-old campus.

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