The Friends of the Volcano School of Arts & Sciences on Hawaii Island will receive $618,000 in capital improvement grant funding, Gov. Neil Abercrombie announced Wednesday.
Identified by the state Legislature, these funds will finance the planning and design needed to construct a new campus for the Volcano School of Arts & Sciences in Volcano Village. The campus will be built on a 3.5-acre site it is currently leasing from the state Department of Education for its fifth- through eighth-grade classes.
“When this project is complete, the Volcano community will finally have a permanent education facility at a consolidated public charter school,” Abercrombie said. “In the meantime, this grant will generate immediate employment opportunities on the Big Island.”
This project will allow the school to consolidate its kindergarten through fourth-grade classes, currently meeting on Old Volcano Road, with grades five to eight. The nonprofit Friends of the Volcano School of Arts & Sciences is expected to fund the construction phase of the project privately through donations, foundation grants, loans and possible federal assistance.