Connections school still determined to move to Kaumana

HILO — Efforts to secure a new campus for Connections New Century Public Charter School continue after nearly a decade on the drawing board.

Later this month, the school, which currently operates out of the old Kress Building on Kamehameha Avenue in Hilo, will ask the state Board of Land and Natural Resources to add its nonprofit organization to the lease for a 72-acre parcel in the Kaumana area. Known as Friends of Connections, the nonprofit was established in 2001 to provide fiscal support to Connections.

The purpose of adding the nonprofit to the lease, said school Principal John Thatcher, is to make it easier for the school to obtain grants and other funding sources in the future. Budgetary concerns will be a moot point, however, if Connections isn’t first successful in its appeal of a 2014 decision by the Hawaii County Windward Planning Commission to deny a special permit to the school for construction of the kindergarten-through-12th-grade charter school on agricultural-zoned land on Edita Street near Kaumana Drive.

On July 14, Connections lost its first appeal before the 3rd Circuit Court in Kona, according to Thatcher.

“Our hearing in Kona was supposed to be in front of Judge (Ronald) Ibarra, but they changed judges on us, and I don’t know how up to speed the new judge was on the issue, and he ruled in favor of the Planning Commission,” Thatcher said. “… But it’s not unusual for that first challenge to rule with the agency that made the ruling. We clearly expected this wasn’t going to be an easy process, and we’ll just keep going.”

Currently, Connections is working to file its opening briefs in its second appeal, said the school’s attorney, Ted Hong.

“The Circuit Court denied our appeal to overturn (the Planning Commission’s decision), so we have now filed an appeal with the Intermediate Court of Appeals,” he said. “They have accepted our first round of opening briefs, and in a couple weeks, we’ll be filing our second round.”

Should Connections fail to win there, the group will have to decide whether to take their complaint to the state Supreme Court.

“Our argument has always been that the Planning Commission ignored the information before them,” Hong said.

Meanwhile, Connections is trying its best to soothe some of the ill will among neighbors who have opposed the school at every turn, said Thatcher. When asked if he would pose for a photograph in front of the property to run with this article, Thatcher said he’d rather not, as it might incite the neighbors.

“Every time we try to go out there, they’ll call the police, they’ll come out and give us a hard time,” he said. “It’s a constant battle. … They think they won this major battle — they stopped a school from building. And it’s sad, because we’ve gotten a lot of support from people who are just disgusted with their behavior and the way they’ve handled this.”

Sidney Fuke, a private planner and former county planning director who represented his neighbors in opposition to Connections’ plans, said Wednesday that his neighbors weren’t necessarily opposed to the school, but rather its proposed location.

“They were concerned about traffic, water availability, and impact to the lifestyle in that area,” he said. “It’s a low-density residential community.”

Fuke added that he supported Connections’ rights to file its appeals, and he would respect any decisions handed down by the appeals court.

“From my standpoint, it is what it is. If the court decides the permit should be approved, we’ll just have to move on. Life is too short,” he said.

Attempts to contact other neighbors who have spoken in opposition to the school were not successful as of press time Wednesday.

Plans for the proposed campus would support a projected student body of 381, a 30-bed dormitory, gym, cafeteria, library, caretaker’s residence and two parking lots with a total of 140 stalls.

The Kaumana site is located on state-owned land and is being leased to the school for 65 years at $480 per year.