Many West Maui families and educators doubt that the three Lahaina public schools reopening in October are as safe as officials say, and they want to see stronger monitoring for toxic substances and emergency and evacuation plans set up well before students and employees return, according to numerous testifiers at an emotional public meeting Thursday.
Several stakeholders also expressed worry that already-heavy traffic on Lahainaluna Road will worsen when hundreds of displaced students from the closed King Kamehameha III Elementary School, which burned in the Aug. 8 wildfire, squeeze temporarily onto the campus of Princess Nahienaena Elementary School, and that gridlock could be dangerous should toxic substances or another fire or emergency require an evacuation.
State schools Deputy Superintendent Tammi Chun told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser afterward that plans for daily real-time monitoring of air quality, as well as immediate procedures if safety issues arise, are already being developed by the state Department of Education.
“The target is to have it done before Oct. 6,” when faculty and staff are expected to begin returning to the Lahaina campuses without students, she said.
During testimony in a nearly three-hour meeting at Harvest at Kumulani Chapel, the first meeting organized by the state House of Representatives’ Interim Schools Working Group, West Maui parent John Carty said parents “need a bit more information to make us feel more comfortable about sending our children down into the zone where air quality is very much a question.”
Carty said it’s a good start that state and federal officials have tested and declared safe the air, soil and water at Lahainaluna High School and Lahaina Intermediate and Princess Nahienaena Elementary schools, “but we need to know about the poisons that could be in the air. We need to know who are the organizations that are doing your testing, so that we can do our own qualitative assessment of them.
“We need to know what your plan is,” Carty continued. “Let’s say that air quality right now is good. But what is your plan for when all the (cleanup) machines are down there (in Lahaina town) stirring it all up?”
Pakalana Phillips, a mother of six children and a former Maui public school teacher, said putting several thousand children back on the Lahaina campuses without a plan to end traffic snarls puts them at risk.
“Why must we wait and put our kids in danger before somebody comes up with a plan to make sure our children are safe?” she said tearfully. “There is one entrance, one exit, on Lahainaluna Road for our students.”
Phillips was among several parents who suggested the three schools stagger their start times to spread out traffic and make better use of scarce bus drivers.
The meeting was intended as a chance for the House Interim Schools Working Group to gather public input in preparation for forming recommendations for legislative action during the 2024 Legislature. It is one of six interim working groups formed by the House to evaluate specific topics related to the Lahaina wildfire. Each working group is to produce a preliminary report by Nov. 1 and deliver a final report by Dec. 15.
However, most of the public testimony Thursday concerned the reopening process starting next week.
Oct. 6 is the date faculty and staff for all four Lahaina public schools will start reporting for work at the three operable campuses in Lahaina.
After the Oct. 9-13 fall break, Lahainaluna boarding students will move in Oct. 15, then all Lahainaluna students will resume classes on their home campus beginning Oct. 16. Lahaina Intermediate students will report to that campus beginning Oct. 17, and students for both King Kamehameha III and Princess Nahienaena elementary schools will attend classes on the latter’s campus beginning Oct. 18.
The DOE’s progress report on safety testing, cleanup measures, contingency planning and more can be viewed at 808ne.ws/3Zw0dOG.
Chun said the DOE’s plan, expected to be distributed next week, will include steps for the schools to take in multiple scenarios.
“We are planning guidance if, for example, at a certain point we would close windows and turn on air filters, or in another point we would stop recess and not do outdoor activity,” Chun said. “And then, in consultation with the Department of Health … perhaps moving to distance learning if it (air quality) became very poor. That’s not something that the Department of Health is anticipating is going to happen, but we want to have that as a backup plan in case it does.”
Chun said traffic solutions are also being discussed among DOE, Maui County and state Department of Transportation officials.
Meanwhile, Chun said it’s not yet clear whether displaced students who opt to stay enrolled in three “designated schools” in Central and South Maui will still have bus service to those campuses after the fall break. She said affected families of all the Lahaina public schools are encouraged to fill out an online form by Oct. 8 indicating what they plan to do when the campuses reopen.
The form can be found at surveymonkey.com/r/LahainaSchools.
