It takes deep commitment to live in Kaupo.

The area 18 miles beyond Hana, Maui, is as starkly beautiful as it is remote. Vast wind-swept pastures line the 10-mile stretch of one-lane, rutted road that twists and bounces through the ranchland. There are a few weathered houses flanked by pickup trucks and water tanks, but mostly, there is the stunning shoreline, all black rocks and splashing waves, the soaring back of Haleakala standing like a guardian, and the gap in the crater where cold winds spill down into the village on winter nights.

All the things Honolulu is missing right now during this shutdown — sit-down restaurants, gym memberships, movie theaters, large groups of people — Kaupo has always managed to do without. It’s about a two-hour drive on a challenging, unlit road to get to Kahului through Kula for any emergencies. Going the other way, through Hana, takes even longer.

It is a place for people who can hunt and fish and grow food in backyard gardens. It is a place for people who fix things when they break and make do with what they have.

One thing Kaupo did have up until a few months ago was a beloved old school house. Kaupo School, built around 1922, was on the National Register of Historic Places.

The two-room school house had not been in use since 1964, but Kaupo residents had a long-held dream of turning the school into a community gathering place, an emergency shelter for travelers who get stuck on the back side of Haleakala during a storm, perhaps a place where there could be classes and a garden and fundraisers for nonprofits.

But then, instead of the historic building being rebuilt, it came down.

What followed was a period of anger, division and distrust in a tiny community. What followed that was something as rare and beautiful as Kaupo itself — an apology and commitment to a new beginning.

The commitment to live in Kaupo isn’t only a commitment to the rugged lifestyle, but also a commitment to one another.

On a Saturday morning in early March, Alohalani Smith and her husband, Alika, welcomed neighbors to the lanai of their Kaupo house for an update on the school situation. Alohalani Smith is the Kaupo representative of Aha Moku, a state program modeled after ancient land management systems.

The Smiths live on ranchland that has been in the family for generations. They keep a shipping container on their property for the Red Cross, filled with supplies should there be an emergency in Kaupo. They had hoped the restored Kaupo school could serve, in part, as an emergency shelter (the current emergency shelter is, pretty much, the Smith’s house) and a place to hold community meetings.

After years of wanting to restore the old schoolhouse and the accompanying teachers’ college, the Kaupo Community Association was successful in getting a state grant for $975,000 for the project, as well as $70,000 from Historic Hawaii Foundation and $475,000 from the County of Maui. Projects like this require permits and approvals and the transfer of the land from state to the association. Lining up all those details took time and dedication. Finally, Kipahulu Construction won the bid on the project, and work started last August.

As the crew started taking apart the building, the project architect found the extent of damage greater than what was anticipated, and decided that the structural integrity of the building was beyond repair. Instead of being restored, the school house was taken down.

There was a high dust screen around the project, so Kaupo residents didn’t immediately notice that the school wasn’t standing anymore. By the time they realized a new building was coming up in its place, neighbors were upset.

The project architect, Jim Niess, explained what happened in a report to the county.

“This determination was necessary and prudent considering the facts discovered during construction. However, this action did reduce the historic status of the original building and reclassified it as a ‘reconstruction’ of an historic property … Having to take this action, obviously, justifiably upset some members of the Kaupo community. In retrospect there should have been more of an effort to keep the community informed of such a dramatic change of course. For this oversight, I deeply apologize to the community and hope we can move forward together with the project.”

Kauwila Hanchett, a member of the Kaupo Community Association, has stepped forward to try to heal the ache in the community. Smith asked Hanchett to come speak to the neighbors gathered on her lanai. There have been several of these community meetings to try to deal with what happened, and there will be more in the future.

“In the past, when the village had a problem, we got together, dished it out, found solutions. Then it was fixed, pa‘a, and we moved on,” Smith said.

Moving on for this project is complicated, though. The Maui County Department of Planning issued a stop-work order on the school.

“The parcel the school is situated on is zoned agricultural and basically restoring or rehabilitating a historic structure and then using it is a permitted use; however, reconstructing a building as a community resource center is not. Therefore, when the building was reconstructed rather than rehabilitated we were no longer covered by this permitted use,” Hanchett explained.

Hanchett began her update to the neighbors by telling the story of having her first baby, using the experience as a metaphor. It was a difficult labor that went on for days, she said, and her own worry caused it to be more stressful. But every time they checked on the baby, she was doing fine, and was eventually born healthy and strong. “Often times we struggle, and often times we create our struggle,” Hanchett said, tying her story to the Kaupo School project, “But we tap into the heartbeat, and it’s steady.”

This stop-work period is allowing Kaupo residents and those with ancestral family ties to talk about what to do next and how it should be done. All have agreed that the community will sanction a plan before any more work is done on the property.

Smith estimates the population of Kaupo is around 45, though there have been more at recent meetings. She thinks the upcoming census will bring the number closer to 100. (There are, however, untold hundreds of tourists who drive through the area every day, though the road is currently closed except to residents.)

Kaupo resident Donna Sterling, who is a cousin of the Smiths, described Kaupo’s community as the kind of place where you have a party and everyone shows up, yet there are people who have been there for years that you never see. “The people are so diverse in this community,” she said, “but yet, we find common ground.”

It is a place where people make the best of what they have and work to fix things when they’re broken.

Still, the ache of loss is felt.

“That was a historic site. That’s what was taken from this place,” Smith said. “Yes, we will have an awesome community site, but it won’t be on the historic register.”