BOE Votes NO Consolidation for Kohala Schools

Students from Kohala Middle School gather outside the Waiakea Intermediate School Cafeteria last night following the vote by the Board of Education not to consolidate their school with the Kohala elementary and high school campuses. The vote comes over a year after the task force convinced in Kohala to assess the future of the school based on administrative rules that were in place for the closure and consolidation of under utilized schools.

The task force report which under the administrative rules should have gone to the Board of Education in February was delayed as the department undertook a further assessment using criteria which was not available to the task force nor complied with the sun-shine regulations under which the task force operated. This left many in the community dismayed and disillusioned with the administrative process and left many with reasons to feel hijacked by the process.