May 2025

Full Speed Ahead!

Aloha! Welcome to the inaugural update from the Hawai‘i School Facilities Authority (SFA). Education is a top-of-mind issue for many Hawai‘i families, and school facilities serve as the foundation for a quality education.

Hawaiʻi children deserve the best education. As a state entity responsible for building workforce housing, preschools, and new schools, SFA takes our mission seriously. We were established by the Hawaiʻi State Legislature in 2020 as a separate organization from the Hawaiʻi Department (DOE) of Education. We are committed to bringing an entrepreneurial mindset to explore new possibilities to breakthrough obstacles that hold back state government from serving Hawaiʻi families better and to make more efficient use of public funds.

Building school facilities is a kākou effort. It involves the collaboration of everyone, from students, teachers, principals, state agencies, legislators, and others across the state. All of our progress is the result of everyone's kōkua. Mahalo!

Riki

Riki Fujitani

Executive Director

A Vibrant Public School System Starts with Quality Facilities

SFA is on a roll! Seventeen existing classrooms are being converted into high-quality public prekindergarten spaces this summer, including our first project at a public charter school. We are making progress on the first-ever teacher workforce housing community to increase teacher retention. And we are in the preliminary stages of developing a new school in Waikapū to meet the evolving needs of the Central Maui community.

Making Prekindergarten Accessible for Over 7,000 Keiki

The cost of early learning opportunities in Hawaiʻi is beyond the reach of many working families. As a result, many keiki do not have the benefit of early development to set them on a positive trajectory. To support Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke's Ready Keiki initiative, SFA has set an ambitious goal of delivering more than 7,000 additional prekindergarten seats by 2032. In just two years, from 2023 to 2024, SFA successfully added nearly 1,000 new prekindergarten seats through classroom renovations on DOE campuses. By contrast, over the 11-year period from 2012 to 2023, only 370 prekindergarten seats were made available to keiki.

SFA was able to deliver the additional seats quickly through standardized designs and implementing a process of using prequalified contractors through a statewide system. Employing these kinds of strategies allows the SFA to build expediently and cost effectively.

HB300, HD1, SD1, CD1 appropriates $20 million in general obligation bond for prekindergarten planning and construction and is now heading to the governor for approval.

Workforce Housing to Address Teacher Shortage

Through a newly formed public-private partnership (p3) with local non-profit developer Pacific Housing Assistance Corporation, SFA will build the first-of-its kind teacher workforce housing project on the Mililani High School campus. The teacher workforce housing will help recruit and retain teachers and tackle the state's housing crisis. Utilizing p3s is another innovative strategy to minimize risks and costs to the state and maximize the value of state lands.

HB329, HD2, SD2, CD1 appropriates $2 million in general funds for the teacher workforce housing on the Mililani High School campus.

New School Coming to Central Maui

SFA has also been directed to build a new Central Maui school. Central Maui needs a new school to address the issue of overcrowded facilities and to support growing student demand in the new Waikapū community. SFA is establishing a new process in building schools, developing standards-based designs, using prefabricated construction, and prequalified contractors.

HB300, HD1, SD1, CD1 appropriates $35 million in general obligation bond funds for new Central Maui school planning and construction and HB329, HD2, SD2, CD1 appropriates $2 million in general funds, also to the new Central Maui school. Both bills are now heading to the governor for approval.