The Federal Emergency Management Agency has allocated $53 million in funding to build a temporary school in West Maui, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz said today.

The temporary school in Pulelehua will replace King Kamehameha III Elementary School, which was located at 611 Front St. and destroyed by the Aug. 8 wildfires. It is expected to provide students and staff from the school with additional facilities to continue instruction as a permanent structure is designed and rebuilt, officials said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers separately announced today that it has awarded a $53.7 million base contract to Pono Aina Management, LLC, a Waianae-based Native Hawaiian company, to build the temporary school.

“The children of Lahaina have gone through a heartbreaking trauma, and the Corps of Engineers, the Department of Defense and our partners can now help the state bring back a bit of normalcy to these young lives,” Col. Jess Curry, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Recovery Field Office commander, said in a news release. “This school may be temporary but will stand as a reminder that despite the grief and loss, Lahaina’s children will have a space to continue to learn, to dream and to thrive. We are proud to be here for them in this moment.”

Schatz said money released from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund comes after he led efforts to include $16 billion in supplemental funding for the program in a short-term government spending bill signed into law on Sept. 30.

“This new funding will give King Kamehameha III students a new temporary school that will help provide them with the resources they need to learn, connect with friends, and heal,” Schatz, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a news release. “As the recovery effort in Lahaina continues, we’ll keep working as hard as we can to bring home more federal resources.”

Since the fires burned their school, students from King Kamehameha III Elementary have been sharing campus facilities with Princess Nahi‘ena‘ena Elementary School in Lahaina.