The Department of Education got approval to explore the possibility of redeveloping three school properties, but the Board of Education will not officially select any sites until getting input from the public.

The board voted Thursday to allow department staff to do more “due diligence” on the parcels for a pilot program under Act 155, which aims to generate revenue from underused school property to modernize and improve Hawaii’s schools.

Last year the department identified seven sites as possible candidates for lease and redevelopment, but only a few elicited interest from potential developers.

The department narrowed down the potential locations to the former Queen Liliuokalani Elementary School on 2.7 acres at 3633 Waialae Ave.; a 6.5-acre parcel at 475 22nd Ave. in Kahala used for curricular staff; and a 4.6-acre plot at 4087 Diamond Head Road, a facilities maintenance base yard. No students are at any of the sites.

Board member Bruce Voss said he thought that the 22nd Avenue and Diamond Head sites “both make great sense,” but not the Waialae site. That property now houses the department’s $6 million data center, school facilities and support services, and security and emergency preparedness services. The Department of Education spent $1.6 million to convert the former school from classroom to office space and also invested $1.3 million in a pilot photovoltaic microgrid system.

Voss pointed to those investments as well as the challenges of getting the parcel up-zoned to business-mixed use.

“I just don’t see how Waialae even makes sense as a pilot project,” he said. “You’ve got huge sunk costs.”

Evan Anderson, principal of Voyager PCS, urged the board to consider letting charter schools get first crack at unused facilities such as Liliuokalani School.

“As a school leader currently, and I speak also on behalf of other charter school leaders … we’re concerned that this might go against a countervailing section of the code that says charters would be given right of first refusal for any underused facilities,” Anderson said. “I ask for your caution as you consider this proposal and ask that you think of the … charter schools.”

Act 155 requires the board to hold at least one public meeting in each affected community during the identification and selection process.

Superintendent Christina Kishimoto noted that the law restricts lease terms to 55 years and that potential investors want to change that to a maximum lease term of 99 years.

“We are already exploring what it will take during this legislative session to update that particular restriction,” she said.