Community pleads to keep Haleiwa Elementary open

NORTH SHORE—Approximately 250 students, parents, and alumni flooded into the Haleiwa Elementary cafeteria to show their support to keep the 140-year-old school from closing.

A public hearing was held there last night to hear feedback on the Waialua Complex Consolidation study, which proposes to close Haleiwa Elementary, resulting in the movement of students in kindergarten through fifth grade to Waialua Elementary. Sixth graders from both elementary schools would be transferred to Waialua High, making them the youngest students on the campus, something that has parents concerned about both peer pressure for boys and girls, and preteen girls being on the same campus as young men.

Ross Moody of Waialua said that the movement to the high school campus would force the sixth graders to deal with situations they aren’t yet prepared for.

“My daughter will be in sixth grade next year. I do not want my 12 year-old daughter spending her days surrounded by 17 and 18 year-old boys,” said Sue, a Haleiwa Elementary mother of two.

Dozens of people, from current Haleiwa students to Haleiwa residents who have watched up to four generations of their family attend the school, delivered emotional and inspirational testimonies all insisting that the Board of Education (BOE) keep the school open.

The public hearing was organized to let the community speak to the BOE, but a decision is not expected to be reached until the fall.

Cristal Ige is a mother of a Haleiwa student and creator of the website SaveHaleiwaSchool.com. Ige said it was unfortunate that only three out of the 11 BOE members were in attendance to hear the testimonies.

One former BOE member, who stated that her father had built the very building that the hearing took place in, asked the Board to look at the bigger picture, saying that rural schools should not be touched. “Please don’t take this away from the community and the children,” she said.

Michael Lyons, chair of the North Shore Neighborhood Board said: “We unanimously support not consolidating this school or any other schools.”

On SaveHaleiwaSchool.com, supporters call their school “exceptional with a historic place for our children to learn” and state that it provides their children with “the best that public education has to offer.”

According to Tom Jacobs’ book “Haleiwa, A Pictorial History,” the school opened in 1871 as Waialua English School. In 1880, it was adopted and funded as a government school with 48 students. In 1911, the school changed locations from Paalaa Kai to Waialua and opened at its current site on Haleiwa road. In 1940, the school’s name was officially changed to Haleiwa Elementary but was still refered to Waialua Elementary until the current Waialua Elementary was built in 1965.

Haleiwa Elementary, which received an annual acheivement award in 2008, is listed as bulding #80001271 on the National and State Registers of Historic Places.

Haleiwa Elementary supporters are asking community members to write letters to Gov. Linda Lingle, the Legistlature, and the BOE to let them know how they feel about the issue.

Malia Evans, a mother of a soon-to-be fifth grade daughter, pleaded to the Board: “You are public servants, and our public has spoken. Our community is in great opposition merging these schools. We love Haleiwa Elementary School, and we love our community, otherwise we would not be here.”