{"id":20880,"date":"2026-07-16T11:28:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T21:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/?p=20880"},"modified":"2026-07-16T12:04:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:04:48","slug":"2026-hidoe-dpr-mou-kilauea-district-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/2026-hidoe-dpr-mou-kilauea-district-park\/","title":{"rendered":"HIDOE, City formalize agreement regarding K\u012blauea District Park and Kaimuk\u012b Middle School property"},"content":{"rendered":"

HONOLULU \u2014\u00a0The Hawai\u02bbi State Department of Education (HIDOE) and the City and County of Honolulu\u2019s Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding<\/a> confirming their shared intent that K\u012blauea District Park\u2019s facilities, including the Tom T. Nekota K\u012blauea Gym Complex, remain under City ownership, management and operation following the subdivision of the property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agreement follows community questions raised earlier this year regarding Senate Bill 2613<\/a>, which transfers ownership of certain public school lands to HIDOE. While the bill, which was signed into law last month as Act 139, included the larger parcel containing both Kaimuk\u012b Middle School and adjacent park facilities, the HIDOE clarified that it did not intend to assume ownership or management of facilities beyond the Kaimuk\u012b Middle School footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This agreement provides certainty for the community and ensures that both Kaimuk\u012b Middle School and K\u012blauea District Park can continue serving their important roles,” Superintendent Keith Hayashi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the MOU, the HIDOE and the city will work together to legally subdivide the property so that Kaimuk\u012b Middle School and the adjacent park facilities remain under separate ownership and management. The agreement outlines the responsibilities of each agency during that process and reaffirms the longstanding partnership between HIDOE and the City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DPR will continue to control access to and manage the park facilities, including permitting, scheduling, operations and maintenance of the Tom T. Nekota K\u012blauea Gym Complex, parking areas and surrounding grounds. This means existing recreational uses and community programming may continue under the City\u02bbs management. The HIDOE will not exercise control or maintenance authority over the park facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are grateful to our HIDOE counterparts for working with us to quickly resolve this issue,\u201d DPR Director Laura H. Thielen said. \u201cProviding our diverse communities with a variety of affordable recreational and educational opportunities is part of our shared kuleana. This agreement ensures the existing programs the K\u0101hala and Kaimuk\u012b communities have enjoyed for generations will remain available and easily accessible. We are committed to pursuing improvements to these facilities, so they can continue their public service. This includes appropriating $400,000 in our current budget to begin the process for gymnasium roof improvements.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a letter<\/a> to Mayor Rick Blangiardi in May, Superintendent Hayashi emphasized that it was not the Department’s intent to acquire ownership of the entire parcel and reaffirmed the Department’s commitment to working collaboratively with the city to ensure the intent and implementation of the legislation were clearly understood and aligned. Hayashi also noted that state law allows it to acquire all or only a portion of the identified parcel, enabling the school and park facilities to remain under separate ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The HIDOE values its longstanding partnership with DPR and remains focused on its core mission of supporting student learning while continuing to work collaboratively with partner agencies on matters that affect both schools and the communities they serve.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HONOLULU \u2014\u00a0The Hawai\u02bbi State Department of Education (HIDOE) and the City and County of Honolulu\u2019s Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding confirming their shared intent that K\u012blauea District Park\u2019s facilities, including the Tom T. Nekota K\u012blauea Gym Complex, remain under City ownership, management and operation following the subdivision of […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":16859,"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-20880","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\/HIDOE-Logo-Featured-1024x512.jpg",1024,512,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Sara Miyazono","author_link":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/author\/sara-miyazonok12-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":338,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":21,"category_count":338,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-28 06:19:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"post_status","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hawaiipublicschools.org\/vi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}