Hale
Kula Elementary School first opened in 1959, the same year that Hawaii became
the 50th state. When Hawaii achieved statehood, Daniel K. Inouye was elected as
its first member of the United States House of Representatives. In 1962, he was
elected to the United States Senate where he served until his death in 2012. At
that time, he was the President pro tempore of the Senate.
Senator
Inouye was a veteran of World War II, a decorated member of the 442nd
Regimental Combat Team, and throughout his political career, he fiercely advocated
for the military and education, and more specifically, for military children. He
was instrumental in the creation of the Joint Venture Education Forum, a
coalition of public school educators, military commands, government, community,
and business leaders. He secured millions of dollars in funding to address
concerns of military families, and Hale Kula was the beneficiary of thousands
of dollars in JVEF funding for technology, textbooks, playground equipment,
3R’s projects, and other school-wide initiatives. Today, JVEF continues to work
collaboratively to support our military-impacted schools.
In
2011, the Office of Economic Adjustment performed a facilities assessment of
157 schools located on military bases across the United States. When assessment
results were released, Hale Kula Elementary School on Schofield Barracks ranked
#9 on the list based on our capacity and condition of the school. Through a
collaborative effort between the Department of Education and the US Army
Garrison Hawaii, the school submitted a proposal and received $26.6 million in
Congressional funding to address the deficiencies in the assessment. The State
of Hawaii Legislature allocated the 20% match or $6.6 million for the project
to proceed. Senator Inouye who chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee at
the time, was instrumental in ensuring that Congress would allocate the funds. The
school is presently in the third phase of a 3-year project, and the
transformation of Hale Kula Elementary School has been remarkable. Students now
and in the future will have a 21st century learning environment that
makes exploration, discovery, collaboration, creation, and sharing possible,
not just within the school but globally as well.
The
Daniel K. Inouye Institute has approached the Department of Education and the
leadership of Hale Kula Elementary School and requested that the school be
renamed Daniel K. Inouye Elementary
School to honor the late Senator. As a school on Schofield Barracks with an
enrollment of 99% military-impacted students, we are supportive of this change.
We are requesting that the Board of Education approve this request. We can
think of no greater privilege than to rename our school after this American
hero.
The change is effective immediately, but we have time to officially transition by July 1, the start of the new fiscal year. We would like to express our sincere appreciation to Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi, Jennifer Sabas of the Daniel K. Inouye Institute, Army School Liaison Officer Wendy Nakasone, Major General Charles Flynn, and Colonel Richard Fromm for their support and assistance as we navigated the process, and mahalo to the Board of Education for approving this request.
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| Senator Daniel K. Inouye
(1924-2012)
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