New Maui school
set to start in hotel

NAPILI, Maui » When it opens next week, Maui's newest private school will have to hold classes at the Kapalua Bay Hotel because of construction delays at the $1.42 million Napili campus.

Maui Preparatory Academy also delayed its opening date by a week in order to give teachers time to set up classrooms in the hotel's ballroom.

Classes start Tuesday with an enrollment of 30 students in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

Tuition costs $8,800 a student, and some $140,000 in financial aid has already been awarded to students, with more money available to help students with financial needs.

"We are not going to be an elitist school," said the school's head, Jack Rizzo, who was a school principal for 18 years on the mainland.

The school, which is being built in three phases with the middle school first, plans to add a higher level grade each year through the 12th grade. Eventually school officials want to add kindergarten through fifth grade.

The campus is being built in Napili on 15 acres donated by Maui Land & Pineapple Co. It has an unobstructed view of the ocean with shade from monkeypod and pine trees. Old dormitories where pineapple workers once lived were also included.

The school will offer a college preparatory curriculum. The classrooms will have air conditioning and Internet access, and each student will be provided with a laptop computer. Plans also call for a basketball court and a gymnasium.

Meanwhile, crews from Arita-Poulson General Contracting are working to finish construction.