Rapid help pledged for mold-plagued Holualoa Elementary School

Gov. Josh Green pledged Wednesday that he’ll approve funding to fix up the nearly 140-year-old Holualoa Elementary School on Hawaii island “the minute it hits my desk,” and a top state Department of Education official said he expects as many as 17 mold-plagued classrooms to be cleaned and repaired over the summer, in time for next school year.

However, the state teachers union and many community members said they feel the remaining three months of the school year is too long to leave many of Holualoa’s students and teachers in school facilities damaged not only by mold, but termites, rats and volcanic earthquakes.

Holualoa’s buildings have reached such a “crisis” with health and safety issues that the Hawaii State Teachers Association organized a news conference Feb. 20 calling for more transparency and an immediate increase in help from the state.

Video and photos from the union document mold growing across classroom walls and ceilings, rat droppings on classroom materials, aging wooden structures compromised by termites and earthquakes, and dirty classroom carpets that school employees fear are harboring mold and covering asbestos.

Green’s remarks about the school came during a “West Hawaii Virtual Talk Story” online event Wednesday night, organized by state Sens. Tim Richards and Dru Kanuha, and state Reps. Nicole Lowen and Kirstin Kahaloa. Holualoa was one of the items on the wide-­ranging agenda.

Green, who represented part of Hawaii island when he was a state representative and senator, said he lived in the Holualoa area for two years, and considers himself “an unusual kind of emeritus legislator from our community, and therefore a super ally, and that means … I’m gonna prove those things and release those monies the minute it hits my desk, as opposed to six months like it usually takes.”

Randall Tanaka, assistant superintendent for the DOE Office of Facilities and Operations, made a rare public appearance on the Zoom event to share news about ongoing immediate repairs and a longer term plan for the school.

The average age of our schools (statewide) is about 63 years old,” and many need extensive work, Tanaka said. “A lot of the schools especially on the Big Island I’ve visited, a number of them are wooden structures, and it’s amazing how long they’ve lasted, to be very frank with you. And with the new codes and things coming in, some of the repair work that we have to do to these schools are monumental not only in cost, but trying to get it fixed.”

Tanaka said he recently sent a crew from Honolulu to work on one “test room” at Holualoa, stripping out old carpet and flooring, installing new flooring, painting the walls with mold- retardant paint. “So the next step now is how we’re going to mete out the rest of these rooms. We do have some hazmat issues … it’s underneath the tile that represents the asbestos problem,” he said.

About 12 to 17 classrooms will need similar treatment, Tanaka said. “We expect to roll out the 17 rooms during the summer when school is not in — continue to intensify cleaning, and we’ll be in pretty good shape in the next school year when we open the school.”

However, Kahaloa said that timeline isn’t precise or fast enough. “You talked about a timeline via maybe getting all of them done over the summer. I think this is a larger emergency for our school and they would like to see more immediacy,” she said to Tanaka.

Tanaka said the DOE is developing charts with timelines and an online bulletin board for updates that the community can follow. In response to community members who have expressed frustration that they have not been able to get the DOE to answer their questions about repairs and renovations to the school, Tanaka said: “This is a high priority for me, so you can reach out to me.”

After the meeting, HSTA President Osa Tui Jr. expressed appreciation for the focus on Holualoa, but said he also is concerned that repairs and a long-term plan have been promised to the school repeatedly over the years but not delivered.

“We hope that the department will act in a very expedient manner to get this issue resolved for the betterment of the keiki that go to that school,” Tui said. “I think this is a great opportunity for the department to prove that their actions are going to speak louder than their words.”

In January, Kanuha introduced a legislative proposal calling for about $48.5 million to be spent on various construction projects on the campus, including $26.2 million to plan, design and construct phase 1 of a master plan for campus improvements; $22 million to plan and construct a new two-story building; $300,000 for “construction for the replacement of carpets with tile in C and D buildings”; and a$75,000 for “construction for the installation of air conditioning throughout the school for mold mitigation.