The Volcano School of Arts &Sciences is developing plans for a new campus, replacing what it calls inadequate and deteriorating facilities.
The Volcano School of Arts &Sciences is developing plans for a new campus, replacing what it calls inadequate and deteriorating facilities.
The 15-year-old kindergarten through eighth grade state public charter school is drafting plans for a 24,000-square-foot, multibuilding campus located on its more than 3-acre site on Haunani Road.
The school moved its middle school students to the Haunani Road site in 2012, where it leases the historic Keakealani School building from the state Department of Education. That historic building will remain intact, education director Kalima Cayir said.
The school’s elementary students attend class at a set of main campus buildings located a couple of miles away on Old Volcano Road. Cayir said those buildings are too small, cramped and starting to deteriorate because of old age.
“The roofs are leaking, there’s just repair after repair, and they’re not big enough,” she said. “We’ve just dealt with inadequate facilities at our current location and not enough space.
“There is not enough space to adequately accommodate our current programs and certainly not enough space for our school to grow.”
The new campus project could cost between $8 million and $10 million and has an estimated completion time of three to five years.
The school secured more than $900,000 in grants thus far to fund planning, design, site preparation and construction of a commercial kitchen. It also secured a $700,000 loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It’s now looking for ways to fund the remainder of the project — likely through a combination of grants and private donations, architect Boone Morrison said.
Plans call for a total of seven buildings and 16 classrooms. Those would include arts and culture classrooms, two labs for science, technology, engineering, art and math, indoor and outdoor “breakout” spaces for small group activities, garden areas, covered walkways, a commercial kitchen, an administrative building and a multipurpose center for school assemblies and community events, according to the charter school’s website.
The campus intends to be energy efficient, Morrison added, with plans for solar electricity use, solar hot water and radiant floor heating.
Enrollment schoolwide is 176. The charter school projects that number to increase in the future as it expands. Next year, it’s adding a preschool program.
The school wants to maintain its existing lease at the Old Volcano Road site “in order to pursue long-term growth plans,” Cayir said. Those plans could include adding a high school, opportunities for adult education, a community library or increasing curriculum space.
Public charter schools in Hawaii do not receive facilities funding from the state. Cayir said facilities have been the “No. 1 challenge” since the school opened in 2001.
For more information about the new campus plan, visit tinyurl.com/VolcanoNewCampus.
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.