{"id":21459,"date":"2026-08-03T14:41:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T00:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/?p=21459"},"modified":"2026-08-03T14:48:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T00:48:05","slug":"2026-haaheo-elementary-welcomes-students-back-after-three-year-campus-upgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ceb\/2026-haaheo-elementary-welcomes-students-back-after-three-year-campus-upgrade\/","title":{"rendered":"Ha\u02bbaheo Elementary welcomes students back after three-year campus upgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"

HILO \u2014 Ha\u02bbaheo Elementary School is excited to welcome students back to its Wainaku campus following a three-year construction upgrade. The addition of three new buildings has significantly expanded facility space while existing buildings have been renovated and repurposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three new buildings house classrooms, a cafeteria\/multipurpose building and a library\/computer lab. Existing buildings at the campus north of Hilo were renovated and repurposed with expanded classroom spaces and the addition of rooms for meetings, administrative staff and storage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can’t wait to hear the school noises,\u201d Ha\u02bbaheo Principal Jennifer Sueoka said. \u201cI can’t wait for them (students) to see our new space and feel the same excitement and joy that the whole staff and I felt when we came for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The renovated buildings were originally constructed in 1931 and the last permanent structure at Ha\u02bbaheo Elementary was built in 1973. The school opened in 1888 and is one of the oldest HIDOE schools on Hawai\u02bbi Island.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students will use the new classroom building when the school year opens on Aug. 5. Contractors are finishing the other two buildings with safety measures in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ha\u02bbaheo Elementary students and staff relocated to a portion of nearby Prince Jonah K\u016bhi\u014d Kalaniana\u02bbole Elementary School during the $25 million construction project that began in summer 2023. Ha\u2018aheo staff started moving back into campus this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The space vacated by Ha\u02bbaheo has allowed Kalaniana\u02bbole to add a Kaiapuni Hawaiian language immersion kindergarten class this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Principal Sueoka thanked Kalaniana\u02bbole for sharing its space and the late State Rep. Mark Nakashima, who helped secure funding for the project. She also thanked the contractors, architects and County of Hawai\u02bbi Public Works for their work, and Ha\u02bbaheo staff for maintaining normalcy and supporting students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey maintained as much normalcy as possible for our students for three years,\u201d Sueoka said. \u201cThey have worked tirelessly on our move back, unpacking and beautifying our space. I am so grateful for each one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Contractors<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"First-grade<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"First-grade<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ha\u2018aheo<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ha\u2018aheo<\/figure>\n<\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HILO \u2014 Ha\u02bbaheo Elementary School is excited to welcome students back to its Wainaku campus following a three-year construction upgrade. The addition of three new buildings has significantly expanded facility space while existing buildings have been renovated and repurposed. The three new buildings house classrooms, a cafeteria\/multipurpose building and a library\/computer lab. Existing buildings at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":21471,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"856,888,893,1022,1619,1622","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","wp_popup_display_lightbox":0,"wp_popup_suppress":"","wp_popup_trigger":"","wp_popup_trigger_amount":0,"wp_popup_disable_on_mobile":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlights","category-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":30,"label":"Highlights"},{"value":21,"label":"News"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/P1149408-copy2-1024x627.jpg",1024,627,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Stanley Lee","author_link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ceb\/author\/stanley-leek12-hi-us\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":30,"name":"Highlights","slug":"highlights","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":30,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":30,"category_count":3,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Highlights","category_nicename":"highlights","category_parent":0},{"term_id":21,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":21,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":347,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":21,"category_count":347,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-10 17:48:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"post_status","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ceb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ceb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ceb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ceb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ceb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ceb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ceb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ceb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ceb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/ceb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}