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Officials focus on
Maili Elementary

By Crystal Kua
Star-Bulletin

Finding money to help solve myriad environmental problems at Maili Elementary School should be done as soon as possible, officials say.

"We're working with the Department of Education to see how quickly we can do it," Gov. Ben Cayetano said yesterday. "We're going to try and see whether we could expedite the funding."

"I do think that it needs to be rated much higher, almost an emergency situation," Board of Education Vice Chairwoman Karen Knudsen said yesterday.

Maili Elementary is located on the hot, dry Leeward Coast, near chicken and pig farms.

The school for years has been plagued with dung flies, animal odors, dust and high indoor temperatures. Installing air conditioning is seen as a cure for these problems but it will cost $3 million to outfit the entire school.

"What's going on at Maili is totally unacceptable," Knudsen said. "You wouldn't find this situation in certain communities in the state. It would not exist for whatever reason."

Knudsen said board members plan to meet with state Schools Superintendent Paul LeMahieu today to get answers on why the situation at Maili has continued to exist. "The whole department is concerned and I think we're all very distressed."

Last week, Maili Elementary supporters rallied at the state Capitol to bring attention to the school's plight and to gain financial support.

Maili is ninth on a list of pending school air-conditioning projects, LeMahieu said. "To say they're No. 9 doesn't mean they aren't needy, it doesn't mean the situation isn't desperate. What it means is that there are actually other places (with need)."

The governor told reporters yesterday that part of the problem is the way the Board of Education sets funding priorities for such projects. "Typically, what happens is that every board member kind of looks out for the district that they come from and as a result sometimes the monies are not apportioned according to real need but according to the priorities of each district."

Knudsen disagreed.

"The governor is mistaken on this," she said. "I think we have proof that we do not look out for our own neighborhoods. I think we are very, very cognizant that we look out for the state as a whole."

Knudsen said the Department of Education uses formulas to determine priority. "I'm sorry that the governor said that and I guess we need to educate him ... in terms of how the board really functions and the challenges we're up against."

She said also said there's plenty of blame to go around.

"I think the situation at Maili is inexcusable and we should all be ashamed that all of us have let it exist for that long."