State agency's preschool production pipeline bulges while other projects hit roadblocks
Riki Fujitani, executive director of the state School Facilities Authority, has made major strides in one lane of work a little over a year since the fledgling agency's first leader resigned under fire at the Legislature, though struggles in other areas remain.
During the waning 2024-2025 school year, the SFA added new public preschool space for 849 children, after an initial 213 preschool seats the year before, when some state lawmakers were pushing to abolish the autonomous agency four years after its creation by the Legislature without initial funding or staff.
Next school year, the agency with eight employees and expanding funds anticipates adding preschool space for an additional 497 children toward a long-term goal to help produce classrooms for all Hawaii 3-and 4-year-olds by 2032 under a 2023 Ready Keiki initiative led by Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke.
Only a little more than half of all preschool-age children in Hawaii are enrolled in preschool, and 95 % who are enrolled go to private programs that can cost several hundred dollars to over $1, 000 per month. Serving more children with free public preschool can provide families financial relief and set up keiki for better learning outcomes starting in kindergarten.
Work to develop affordable rental housing largely for public schoolteachers plus a new middle and elementary school on Maui has not made nearly as much progress. Yet SFA has found some solid footing after floundering for most of its existence.
Fujitani, who was once an electrical engineer at satellite maker TRW Inc. and later became a litigation attorney, kind of looks at SFA as a special-projects team.
'My analogy I tell people is like Skunk Works, ' he said during an interview in the agency's spartan office at Prince Jonah Kuhio Elementary School. 'Lockheed had to set up Skunk Works to build the stealth fighter.'
Brian Canevari, SFA program manager for teacher housing, has another business analogy for the agency, which is governed by a volunteer board.
'It's kind of like a startup working in a garage, except it's a classroom building, ' he said.
Preschool pipeline Much of what SFA has done so far has been procured through design consultants and other contractors.
All preschool classrooms created by the agency to date stem from minor renovations made to state Department of Education classrooms not needed for higher grades. Such work includes furniture, flooring and bathroom fixture replacements requiring no building permits and at an average cost of $345, 000 per classroom, or $17, 250 per seat for a typical 20-seat classroom.
The agency projects producing close to 100 classrooms this way for 2, 039 students by mid-2027, exhausting all spare DOE classroom space.
SFA also has a couple major school renovation projects to produce five classrooms for 90 children.
One of these involves major changes to three classrooms and building one new classroom at Waialae Elementary Public Charter School. Construction is expected to begin on the three classroom conversions this summer and finish before school resumes in August. Building the new classroom is slated for next summer.
The project is budgeted at $50, 000 per seat, or $1 million for a 20-seat classroom.
A third SFA strategy to deliver preschool classrooms is new construction in new or existing state buildings. For instance, eight classrooms for 126 children are being built in a graduate housing tower rising at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. That project costs about $79, 000, or $10 million in total.
New classrooms also are planned for the Pearl City Public Library, Waikoloa Public Library, Kauai Community College, 'Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo, Paia Elementary School on Maui, Malama Honua Public Charter School in Waimanalo and a state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands community center on Hawaii island.
SFA plans to deliver classrooms for 1, 392 children using new construction from 2026 to 2029.
All currently planned preschool projects would serve 3, 521 children, or a little more than half of 6, 737 children in need estimated by Ready Keiki.
Fujitani said fulfilling the Ready Keiki plan represents an 'aspirational ' goal that would require 56 sites.
Balky start SFA is five years old, but initial funding and staff date only to 2022. That year, the Legislature appropriated $200 million for preschool classroom development and money for staffing.
Then-Gov. David Ige appointed career educator Chad Keone Farias to lead SFA for a six-year term. Farias, however, resigned in January 2024 as a dozen state senators pushed a bill to repeal the agency.
The departure by Farias also followed big funding reductions for preschools and teacher housing in 2023 by Gov. Josh Green, who released only $81.7 million of the $200 million for preschool development.
Separately, Green eliminated all but $5 million of a $170 million legislative appropriation for teacher housing in 2023, vetoing $120 million and later redirecting $45 million for Maui wildfire disaster relief.
Fujitani, who in 2017 had joined a division of DOE working on deferred school maintenance, was asked by SFA Board Chair Alan Oshima to succeed Farias at least on an interim basis. The 64-year-old Fujitani, who had once been a litigator in a law firm where Oshima was a partner, agreed with some reluctance.
'It was not in good shape, ' Fujitani said.
He replaced most of what had been a staff of six and canceled plans to lease office space in Kakaako to house SFA. 'We had to reload, ' he said.
Since 2024, the Legislature has appropriated an additional $120 million for preschools—$100 million last year and $20 million this year—and SFA's staff is up to eight, including program managers for preschool, teacher housing and new school development, a planning officer, an administrative services officer and a business manager.
Four more authorized positions are as yet unfilled, including a procurement specialist, a land agent and a secretary under SFA's roughly $1.7 million annual operating budget.
While the agency has racked up preschool achievements, developing teacher housing and new schools has been more problematic.
Housing hang-ups In 2023, the Legislature assigned seven teacher housing projects to SFA with the $170 million that Green cut down to $5 million.
At the top of the list was $65 million appropriated for housing at Mililani High School. Another $25 million was slated for Nanakuli and Waipahu housing projects, and four $20 million projects were directed for Windward Oahu, Maui County, Hawaii island and Kauai.
Fujitani told House Finance Committee members during a Jan. 9 briefing that the best place for affordable teacher housing is urban Honolulu, and that SFA was assigned what became a 109-unit pilot project in Mililani that hasn't gone well.
After the funding cuts, SFA used the remaining $5 million to procure a development agreement with nonprofit affordable-housing developer Pacific Housing Assistance Corp.
A contract with Pacific Housing was signed in August, but the project site drew objections from school officials, and the developer is studying alternative site prospects.
SFA earlier this year asked lawmakers for $20 million to procure five more housing development agreements. The Legislature approved $2 million.
Some lawmakers did consider appropriating $50 million for the Mililani project instead of relying on Pacific Housing to arrange its own financing. But the proposed funding, inserted into House Bill 329 that aimed to clarify SFA responsibilities, was not in the final version of the bill that passed.
Meanwhile, SFA hasn't been able to obtain other DOE sites for teacher housing despite identifying about 25 prospects and having the statutory power to acquire such land with approval from the governor.
Canevari told SFA's board at its April meeting that DOE isn't supportive of what he called 'highly probable ' candidate sites.
DOE spokesperson Nanea Kalani said the response was preliminary feedback.
'Any project of this nature requires careful consideration to ensure it doesn't interfere with student safety, daily school operations, or the learning environment, ' she said in an email. 'Our initial reviews, looking at factors like traffic and parking, highlighted the need for further due diligence before we could support development at these locations.'
Fujitani believes bureaucratic inertia at DOE is stifling progress on teacher housing development.
'Change is hard, ' he said, gesturing to a big open space at Kuhio Elementary adjacent to three roughly 20-story residential buildings where he believes 800 homes could be developed. 'It's just inertia.'
Some state lawmakers tried to drive the issue earlier this year by adding language to Senate Bill 1393 to repeal SFA's power to have DOE convey land upon SFA's request and approval of the governor. The bill did not pass.
New school division Another clash between SFA, DOE and state lawmakers has been over new schools.
SFA was created in part to take over new school development from DOE using innovative ways to expedite construction while leaving DOE to address huge deferred maintenance needs for existing schools.
Yet lawmakers have provided partial funding to SFA for only one new school, an envisioned middle and elementary campus in Central Maui where an initial $20 million appropriation was made in 2022 followed by $10 million in 2023 and $9 million in 2024.
This year, Green sought $100 million more for the project, which is expected to cost over $300 million, though the Legislature approved $37 million.
DOE, meanwhile, has plans for about 16 other new schools.
During a Jan. 14 SFA briefing to a pair of Senate committees overseeing education and budgetary matters, some lawmakers expressed frustration with the agency's limited role in new school development.
'It seems like that need is not a need, ' said Sen. Kurt Fevella. 'It's a big mess.'
Fevella (R, Ewa Beach-Ocean Pointe-Iroquois Point ) complained that the Ewa region has several badly overcrowded schools and a bigger need for new schools than Central Maui.
Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz (D, Mililani-Wahiawa-Whitmore Village ) questioned who determines new school priorities.
'There's a big disconnect between what's going on in the operations of DOE vs. SFA, ' he told Fujitani. 'Your board has no idea what's going on with board business at DOE. That's awkward. Some of that got to get cleaned up.'
Fujitani responded by saying DOE data shows a big need for a new middle and elementary school in Central Maui, and that he is pursuing the project at the Legislature's direction.
SFA has described the Maui project an opportunity to produce a new school in half the time and 75 % of the cost of a typical new Hawaii school by using new standards, a design-build method and modular construction.
To date, only $20 million of the $76 million appropriated for the school has been released. Of the $20 million, $2.2 million has been spent on design work and the rest is committed to be spent on similar work.
Fujitani said construction on an initial $180 million phase for 300 middle-school students could begin in 2028 and finish in 2030. A second phase is envisioned for 600 to 700 more middle school students. A third phase would be for elementary students. Projected full capacity is 1, 450 students.
At one point during this year's legislative session, some lawmakers proposed $30 million in HB 329 for SFA to take over DOE work to replace a Lahaina elementary school destroyed in the 2023 wildfire disaster. The proposal did not end up in the final version of the bill sent to Green.
HB 329, if enacted, would eliminate SFA's prior responsibility to develop all new public schools and instead refocus the agency's responsibility mainly on developing preschool and childcare facilities, workforce housing and new school development assigned by the Legislature, the governor or the state Board of Education.
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