KILAUEA — A North Shore community group is seeking to bring a middle and high school to the area’s growing population.
Members of the Kauai North Shore Community Foundation are working with state officials to make the proposed plan a reality, the Garden Island reports.
Foundation member Lorraine Mull said the community is long overdue for the school, and that “it is our intention to convince the Department of Education that a public school in our community is a high priority.”
Parents worry busing the 139 students up to an hour to Kauai District schools keeps them from engaging both with their classmates and their community.
“Many of our students are rising before daylight to take a bus to school which takes more than an hour each way,” Mull said. “These middle/high school students are precluded from engaging in after-school activities such as sports, music, study groups, etc., which are vital for their social, emotional and physical development, because they have to catch the bus for the hour-plus drive back to the North Shore.”
Department of Education officials would need to find five acres to host the school and decide whether state funding should be used to construct the campus. A charter school is also an option, funded through private and public sources.
Mull said community support for the school has been “overwhelmingly positive,” and that her group is collecting signatures and letters of support.
Kauai District officials declined to comment on the proposal.