A Hawaiian group is proposing to purchase the former Waimea Hospital/Dispensary Building to house a charter school and community services.
The proposal includes a high-tech training facility that would benefit island youths and adults.
At a public hearing held at the Lihu‘e Civic Center Tuesday, Kula Aupuni Niihau A Kahelelani Aloha representatives asked the Kaua‘i County Planning Commission for a use permit and a Class IV permit for its K-12 charter school.
The commission closed the hearing, and no opposition to the proposal was made, according to Roland Sagum, a representative for the organization and president of Applied Planning Systems of Lawai. A decision is pending.
Representatives for Kula Aupuni are proposing to buy the 1-acre lot with buildings for about $395,000 from the West Kauai Community Development Corp.
The sale hinges partly on Kula Aupuni representatives being able to secure the permits and purchase funds, Sagum said.
With the help of Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawai‘i), Kula Aupuni operators have secured a $223,000 Housing and Urban Development grant to help buy the old dispensary and to establish a high-tech training facility within it, Sagum said.
Representatives for Kula Aupuni are applying for a similar grant next year, and are seeking donations from the community to bring the project to fruition, Sagum said. “When it is completed, it will be of benefit to a lot of people, we believe,” he said.
A West Kaua‘i banker who attended the meeting said the proposed high-tech training center would be fitted with the latest computer equipment and would be staffed by computer experts.
Before the hearing was closed, planning commissioner Larry Chaffin Jr. said he had concerns about the additional cost of the renovation, estimated to be about $400,000.
After the meeting, Sagum said “that is not his job to do that (look at the additional cost for the renovation), only to consider the permits. We haven’t hired an architect yet to look at that (the renovations).”
Kula Aupuni Niihau at one time operated its K-12 charter school at the Kekaha Armory with Aha Punana Leo Inc., a Big Island non profit group that manages the Ke Kula Niihau O Kekaha, another charter school that operates in Kekaha.
Kula Aupuni operators felt both the Hawaiian and English languages should be taught early on to their students.
Operators of the Ke Kula Niihau O Kekaha school felt that the Hawaiian language should be taught exclusively until the fourth grade, when English would be introduced.
Both organizations operated for a time at the Kekaha Armory, but because of philosophical differences, operators of the Kula Aupuni K-12 charter school moved out, and operators of the other school remained.
The classes run by representatives for Kula Aupuni are currently taught in a building on Ola Street in Waimea that is used by the Boys and Girls Club of Waimea.
“Both organizations provide a needed service and skills,” Sagum said before the start of the public hearing Tuesday. “It is just that philosophies didn’t align with each other.”
The old hospital site that is proposed for the new Kula Aupuni school consists of a large entry wing that runs along the south side of the building.
In addition, three separate wings extend northward toward the back part of the property.
The plans call for converting existing rooms into offices, a conference room, a library, a lounge for teachers and two large classrooms by the front hall of the building.
Specifically, the west wing would be renovated for office use while the east wing would be converted into two classrooms and school offices. The center wing, a former kitchen, would be renovated into a student lounge. In addition, there would be an 800-foot covered parking area.
The building consists of 7,437 square feet, of which the school would occupy 2,740 square feet, and 1,854 square feet would be used for community service organizations, according to a county planning department report. The net office space in the building would total 2,356 square feet, the report added.
A former nurse’s quarters would be renovated and remain in residential use, county planners said.
The exterior of the building also would be repainted, and a lava rock foundation at the front of the building would be maintained, planners said.
State and county officials are concerned the project would generate additional traffic congestion at the intersection of Kaumuali’i Highway and Ola Road in Waimea.
State Department of Transportation officials have requested that motorists not be allowed to make left turns from Ola Road onto the highway during peak morning and evening traffic hours. Officials also want a traffic study to be done. County planners said the renovation project should fly partly because it would help preserve a historic building, which served several generations of west Kaua‘i residents.
The Waimea Hospital building was constructed in 1929 and underwent extensive renovations in 1950 and 1978.
With the opening of the Kaua‘i Veterans Memorial Hospital, the old Waimea Hospital was refitted into an outpatient clinic, and became known as the Waimea Dispensary. The facility closed after the opening of the Kawaiola Medical Center in 1996.
The old medical building has been vacant since and would be an ideal home for the Kula Aupuni school, Sagum said. Poised to speak in favor of the new school location was Hedy Sullivan, an administrator for Kula Aupuni.
The bilingual Kula Aupuni school consists of 45 students and five teachers/ administrators. The other charter school, Ke Kula school, was formed in 1994 after Ni‘ihau parents living on Kaua‘i were concerned the Ni‘ihau dialect of the Hawaiian language could be lost.
Hawaiian youths responded in pidgin English when questioned in Hawaiian by their parents, Ke Kula representatives have said.
In the summer of 2001, the state Board of Education approved the Ke Kula Niihau O Kekaha Learning Center as the first charter school on Kaua‘i and the 10th in the state.
Because of different philosophies, operators of the Ke Kula and Kula Aupuni’s charter schools went their separate ways, with the Ke Kula school remaining at the Kekaha Armory.
Operators of the Kula Aupuni’s charter school set up classes at a pavilion at the Kekaha Neighborhood Center and later moved to the building on Ola Road that houses the Boys and Girl’s Club of Waimea. The old dispensary is located up the block from where the Kula Aupuni school now operates.
