Hakipuu Learning Center faces eviction at the start of the school year

KANEOHE—Days before the Hakipuu Learning Center’s school year begins, staff and over 70 students will be evicted by the Department of Health (DOH) if Govenor Linda Lingle does not intercede.

Hakipuu has called the Bishop building on the Windward Community College (WCC) campus home for the past nine years. Now, the public charter school faces an eviction notice that requires them to vacate the property by the end of the month. 

DOH’s demand for the property has created a dire situation for Hakipuu, it’s students, and the families they serve because the school year is scheduled to resume on July 27.

Earlier this year, Hakipuu was notified by DOH about it’s intent to develop the land parcel as a long-term care facility with the project breaking ground on or after September 1 to include the demolishing of the Bishop building. At that time, the school was informed they needed to vacate the premises by June 30, but was then granted an extension to the end of July.

The school has invested more than $300,000 and thousands of volunteer hours to restore the building after DOH initiated a proposal process for a long-term contract of the Bishop building. This came after Hakipuu accommodated a DOH request to relocate from their original placement in WCC’s Haloa building, which today remains empty.

HLC’s administrator, Charlene Hoe, told The Hawaii Independent: “We are only asking for an overlap period that would allow us to remain in the building while they [DOH] are in the process of attaining their building permits. We’re only talking about a 90 day period. It’s the same 90 days before they’re scheduled to break ground anyway. We have a location and the money for a building. All we need is the time to get it done.”

Windward Community Collage chancellors Angela Maxell and Doug Dykstra offered a relocation site that would allow Hakipuu to remain on WCC grounds. However, the site is not ready to be moved into.

Hakipuu has plans to relocate to the site upon the completion of a structure that could accommodate the student body and provide a project-based learning environment. Currently, one of the WCC structures on the property has already been condemned and the two others are not sufficient to meet the needs of the school. 

On July 13, Hakipuu held a press conference asking the governor to intercede to allow the charter school sufficient time to relocate.

“We have been trying to work with DOH for years now, but recently those requests have fallen on deaf ears,” Hoe said. “DOH Director Chimyome Fukino refused to meet with us or even respond to requests for a meeting. Forcing us out by July 31 means the school must shut down. We do not have any other place to teach 70 to 80 students without the facilities we have developed over the past nine years. I am appalled at the thought of what this will do to our 70 plus students and their families—and for no good reason.”

The Department of Health did not respond to The Hawaii Independent‘s requests for comment.

Hakipuu Board Member Keliko Hoe said: “Throughout this process, [Hakipuu Learning Center] continues to advocate that both our State programs [the charter school and DOH] provide important services to our surrounding communities and that it should not be a situation of one or the other, but a solution that allows both to maintain a presence on the Keaahala uplands area to serve our Windward community.”

In the past, Hakipuu has called on the governor’s office for help with mediation. “We appreciate [Lingle’s] help and support both on our behalf and as an out spoken champion of the charter school movement in Hawaii,” said Keoni Aylett, Hakipuu board member. “We need her help again to mediate this dispute.”

Hakipuu is asking the community to show support by contacting their City Council representative and the governor’s office.

Governor Linda Lingle did not respond for comment at the time of publication of this story.