KEALAKEHE \u2014 Kealakehe Elementary School has begun work on a $16 million classroom building that will expand learning space, better serve a growing student population, and physically connect the school\u2019s upper and lower campuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new two story, 13,000 square foot building will add four classrooms, special education spaces, an outdoor classroom, covered learning lanai, faculty workroom, offices and storage. Two pedestrian bridges will link the structure to existing buildings, allowing students and staff to move safely and seamlessly across the sloped campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The project was recently marked with a blessing ceremony. The building was designed by Urban Works, Inc., with construction management provided by the West Hawai\u02bbi District Office under the state Department of Accounting and General Services (DAGS). Nan Inc. has begun construction, with completion anticipated in Sept. 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis building has been a bridge, literally and figuratively, connecting the school, partners and our students\u2019 education,\u201d Superintendent Keith Hayashi said. \u201cFrom the support of Sen. Dru Kanuha and Rep. Nicole Lowen to the new DAGS district office and the designers who offered a solution that met school needs within site constraints, we are looking forward to this new building connecting the upper and lower campus and elevating the learning environments for students, teachers and staff.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We are grateful to the legislature and Governor Green for supporting the effort of creating a second district office on Hawai\u02bbi Island. Given the long travel times from Hilo to Kona, it was evident a second office was needed to properly service our schools and DAGS-managed facilities in West Hawai\u02bbi,” Keith Regan, comptroller and DAGS director, said. “It’s thanks to this support that we now have a highly skilled and motivated district engineer in place in West Hawai\u02bbi who has positively impacted our support of the DOE and our other operations.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DAGS West Hawai\u02bbi District Office program manager Ramsi Mansour said the new office is prepared to support school construction and maintenance projects across West Hawai\u02bbi, beginning with Kealakehe Elementary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur school community has been waiting in anticipation for our new building,\u201d Kealakehe Elementary Principal Wendy Daniel. \u201cWe are excited for this new building to support our increasing student population and lay the foundation for future generations of Warriors to learn and grow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To create a welcoming environment for young learners, the design blends neutral tones with the natural landscape, accented by the copper roofing and pops of color in building outcroppings. The intentional use of Hardie clapboard siding on the exterior is reminiscent of residential material and gives the structure a homey look and feel. Large operable windows bring light and nature in. The second floor\u2019s tall ceiling height of up to 15 feet and clerestory windows give additional feelings of light and air.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KEALAKEHE \u2014 Kealakehe Elementary School has begun work on a $16 million classroom building that will expand learning space, better serve a growing student population, and physically connect the school\u2019s upper and lower campuses. The new two story, 13,000 square foot building will add four classrooms, special education spaces, an outdoor classroom, covered learning lanai, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":18281,"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":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":21,"label":"News"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026-urbanworks-1024x683.jpg",1024,683,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Kimi Takazawa","author_link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/author\/kimi-takazawak12-hi-us\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":21,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":21,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":306,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":21,"category_count":306,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 10:30:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"post_status","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/sm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}