Seven years ago, Thomas Yagi asked his daughter from his deathbed to finish what he started: a new play field for Waihee Elementary School in Maui. Waihee Elementary School
receives $2 million
for playgroundThe Maui public school's enrollment
is growing fast and it has limited play spaceBy Rosemarie Bernardo
rbernardo@starbulletin.comHis wish will come true.
In early September, Gov. Ben Cayetano approved the release of about $2 million to the state Department of Accounting & General Services for construction of a Waihee play field. Construction is scheduled to start in the spring of next year.
"This dream had come true. I don't know how to express that kind of feeling," said Yagi's daughter, state Sen. Jan Yagi Buen.
Waihee has been one of the most rapidly growing public schools in the state due to the increasing development of subdivisions in the area, said Department of Education spokesman Greg Knudsen. School enrollment is expected to increase as the final phase of Hawaiian Home Lands Waiehu Kou subdivision is completed by the end of 2004.
The school, which has an enrollment of 830 students K-5, holds three shifts for recess because of the limited space. Children also play in the school's fire lane due to the little space available on campus.
School Principal Faith Tokeshi said, "I'm just happy that it's moving this year. ... We've been waiting and waiting."
Buen said her father, former Maui division director of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, spent years trying to get more land for the school.
In the early 1990s, Yagi approached C. Brewer & Co. to seek more land for the school to accommodate the growing community. His tenacity led to C. Brewer donating 4.7 acres to the state for a play field.
Fujio Matsuda, former University of Hawaii president, said: "He was very effective. It's not easy to get free land from the private company. He was very persistent.
"The company wanted to make a contribution to the community, but without Tom Yagi, I doubt it would have happened," said Matsuda, former board member for C. Brewer.
Yagi and four generations of his family attended Waihee Elementary School, which has been in operation for more than 120 years. In the late 1980s, Waihee became the first year-round school in the state through Yagi's lobbying efforts before the state Legislature, Buen said.
Buen added that her father always stressed the importance of education to her and her seven siblings. Yagi finished 10th grade at St. Anthony Boys School and had the opportunity to attend St. Louis High School in Honolulu to complete the last two years of high school. But he decided to work at the Wailuku Sugar Co.'s Waihee Farm, known locally as Waihee Dairy, to financially help his parents, Seizan and Kamado, who also worked as laborers in the sugar cane fields.
Yagi later received his diploma through a General Education Development (GED) program.
Buen said if her father were alive today, his reaction to the approval of the Waihee play field funding would be, "We need more."
"That's the way he was. ... We need to do more. No stopping here. That's my dad."
County of Maui
