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School finishes
ceiling fixes

Kailua Intermediate will for now
not use a class where a teacher
and kids were injured

Kailua Intermediate School will not send students back to the room where a ceiling caved in last month, hoping to spare them any further trauma.

Room C-219 will instead be left vacant for this school year and might be turned into a science lab for next year, said Principal Suzanne Mulcahy.

"The students know 219 has been repaired and is now safe, but they just had bad memories," Mulcahy said.

The room's ceiling collapsed on Jan. 14, causing minor injuries to science teacher Katie Vaughan and some of the students. Metal clips that held together a suspended ceiling framework are believed to have corroded and given way.

Repair work on Room C-219 and nine other classrooms deemed to have potentially unsafe ceilings is completed, and students began moving back into those rooms this week.

The incident prompted the state to inspect other schools around the islands suspected of having risky ceilings.

State officials have said the type of ceiling used at Kailua Intermediate School was common in schools built around the same time. Kailua Intermediate was completed in 1954.

Inspectors have narrowed their focus to at least three dozen suspect schools on Oahu, Maui and the Big Island.

Mulcahy said she is pushing to have the state replace all ceilings at Kailua Intermediate similar to Room C-219, but is not sure whether enough funding will be available. It cost the state $25,000 to replace one ceiling at the school.

Repair crews are now working on six other classrooms.

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Grants and volunteers will
help 18 schools renovate

Eighteen public schools across the state will share grants totaling more than $500,000 to complete campus renovation projects with volunteer help.

The grants were awarded under the Hawaii 3R's initiative, which stands for "repair, remodel and restore" and supports school-community efforts to tackle a portion of the state's backlog in school repairs at lower cost.

The schools are Aliamanu Elementary School, Aliamanu Middle, Farrington High, Highlands Intermediate, Kahuku Elementary, Kalihi Waena Elementary, Kipapa Elementary, Lahaina Intermediate, Lanai High & Elementary, Leilehua High, Maui Waena Elementary, Mauka Lani Elementary, McKinley High, Mililani High, Mililani Waena Elementary, Waiakea High, Waihee Elementary and Waimea Middle.

The projects will include re-striping parking lots, drainage improvements, playground resurfacing, repair of walkways and painting.

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