Mayor Michael Victorino speaks at a program on Friday in Iao Valley as the county will acquire properties that house the Hawaiian Language School Ke Kula o Pi‘ilani and the Hawai‘i Nature Center. The center, owner of the properties, will continue as a tenant and the school will negotiate a new long-term lease agreement with the county. — County of Maui / Shane Tegarden photo
Maui County is spending $1.5 million to buy two parcels totaling about 1.4 acres that include buildings housing an independent Hawaiian language school and Hawaii Nature Center programs in Iao Valley.
The Maui County Council unanimously adopted a resolution Aug. 5 to approve Mayor Michael Victorino’s request for a budget amendment to use special funds from the Economic Development and Cultural Programs Revolving Fund to purchase the two parcels, including existing structures, from the nonprofit Hawaii Nature Center.
Victorino, council members, Hawaii Nature Center representatives and students and faculty of Ke Kula o Pi’ilani, an independent Hawaiian language school, marked the acquisition at an event Friday.
Ke Kula o Pi’ilani has a lease on the property through June 30. When the property is conveyed to the county, school administrators will negotiate a new long-term lease agreement with the county, according to a county news release.
Victorino said the state restricted the land to educational use only in the early 1980s.
“It’s a forward-looking purchase for Maui County,” he said in the release. “Helping to protect the home of the world’s only independent Hawaiian language school is both appropriate and pono.”
Kekai Robinson, po’o kula or head of school, said school officials were grateful for officials’ efforts “to help perpetuate Hawaiian language and wisdom into the future.”
“We are humbled and blessed by this opportunity for our school community to be conscious stewards of this storied place,” Robinson said.
Hawaii Nature Center will continue to operate its school break camps and environmental science programs at the property, as a tenant, with its Nature Adventure Camp slated for December during winter intercession, according to the news release.
Hawaii Nature Center acquired the property in 1991 to establish a Maui center for place-based environmental science. Its programs grew to include about 20 Maui schools whose students participated in camps, field trips and weekend learning programs.
Hawaii Nature Center Executive Director Todd Cullison said the organization will use proceeds from the sale “to reinvest in our Maui programs to make environmental science even more accessible to schools and communities islandwide.”
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