LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Children take their seats at folding tables on the patio of a church a few miles from where their school burned. Plastic tubs hold brand new textbooks delivered quickly from publishers. Rest is at the resort’s golf course across the street.
The wind-driven wildfires that leveled the historic Maui town of Lahaina this summer displaced many students not only from their homes, but from their schools, forcing their families and education officials to scramble to find other ways to teach them.
Now, more than two months after the Aug. 8 wildfires killed at least 98 people, three public schools that survived will reopen this week, creating an emotional crossroads for traumatized children and their families as they decide whether to return to the schools. . campus or continue at another school that takes them.
Some parents said they would not send their children home because they feared the fire left toxins, despite education officials’ assurances that the campus was safe.
“I feel optimistic about it and thankful we’re back,” said Cailee Cuaresma, a 10th-grader at Lahainaluna High School. “I am thankful that our school is still standing.”
Sacred Hearts School third graders pet Quincy, a cozy dog with Assistance Dogs of Hawaii, at Sacred Hearts Mission Church on Tuesday, Oct. 3. 2023.AP
For the past month, Cuaresma has been attending classes at the temporary campus of Sacred Hearts School, a Catholic school founded in 1862. Much of the school burned down, but its leaders quickly set up classes and walked the Sacred Hearts Mission Church 10 miles (16 kilometers) away. .
Sacred Hearts and other private schools across the state accept homeless public school students, like Cuaresma, while offering free tuition for a year. Other students take buses more than 45 minutes to public schools on the other side of Maui or choose isolated classes.
On a recent school day at Sacred Hearts’ temporary site, teachers moved students between pockets of shade to keep them out of the relentless Lahaina sun. Principal Tonata Lolesio told students gathered on cushioned pews in a church that it could be two years before they can return to the rebuilt school.
Sacred Hearts School principal Tonata Lolesio is pictured during an interview at their temporary school site .AP
“Pray for it to be faster,” he said.
Meanwhile, space limitations require students to attend classes on staggered days. The workers have prepared adjacent grass for the tent which allows at least the small children to go to school every day.
Lent sat with a group of younger students petting a loving golden retriever brought in by Assistance Dogs of Hawaii. His house survived the fire but his father had just recently got a job at a hotel. Being at Sacred Hearts is a great opportunity because the work is challenging, he said.
A public school in Lahaina, King Kamehameha III Elementary, was destroyed. Pupils from there will share space with Puteri Nāhiʻenaʻena Elementary, which is closed for cleanup after the fire along with Lahainaluna High and Lahaina Intermediate.
Sacred Hearts School students walk back to their temporary school grounds after recess.AP
The schools are just blocks from a potentially dangerous ash pile, sparking concern from parents, but education officials said air quality tests showed it was safe to reopen.
“He’s not going to take a step back there,” said Tiffany Teruya, mother of a Lahaina Middle eighth-grader.
She and her son, Puʻuwai Nahoʻoikaika, have been staying in a hotel since their apartment building caught fire. He has participated in a Hawaiian immersion program connected to Lahaina Intermediate.
After school is closed, the program holds classes outside, away from the burn zone, and focuses on cultural learning such as making bamboo trumpets and working in taro patches.
Sacred Hearts School second grade teacher Courtney Copriviza interacts with fourth grade AP students
Teruya doesn’t know where she will send her son once school reopens and the immersion program returns to campus, she said.
Debbie Tau’s two children will not return to their Lahaina school because she, too, fears the air is unsafe. They live in the Lahaina neighborhood north of the burn zone. He plans to drive them after fall break, when the school district stops providing buses to another school in Kihei, about 45 minutes away.
“Asbestos is something that scares me a lot because it is a carcinogen. And 10, 20, 30 years from now, our children can get cancer,” he said. “I feel like it’s like going back to COVID, where every decision you make is wrong and you’re, like, putting your kids’ lives in danger.”
Sacred Hearts School second grade teacher Courtney Copriviza interacts with fourth graders at their makeshift school site.AP
Some public school students who have joined private schools plan to stay. Patrick Williams said the first time he saw his son Kupaʻa pray at Sacred Hearts reminded him of his own childhood in Mississippi.
“I was like, ‘Oh, this is where he should have been all along,'” Williams said.
The family, whose home was untouched by the fire, will make sacrifices to pay tuition, especially since Williams lost most of his Lahaina water delivery line to the fire.
The difficult situation has prompted teachers to try different ways to connect with displaced students.
Sacred Hearts School fifth graders paint hearts on their makeshift school site at Sacred Hearts Mission Church on October 3. AP
At Maui Preparatory Academy, which at one point enrolled 150 public school students, science and math teacher Gabby Suzik said she often checks in with homeless Lahainaluna High students. Suzik lost the home she and her husband bought last year on Lahaina Front Street.
When some students showed up at Maui Prep with no shoes, no backpacks and no pencils, she told them not to worry, noting she was wearing borrowed clothes.
“I like to be honest with them and say, like, ‘Hey, you know, I understand what you’re going through and you can talk to me anytime,'” Suzik said.
Sacred Hearts School third graders read a book during English language arts class at their temporary school site at Sacred Hearts Mission Church on Tuesday, Oct. 3. 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii.AP
During a Hawaiian culture lesson at Sacred Hearts, teacher Charlene Ako tried to connect with third graders from Puteri Nāhiʻenaʻena Elementary by showing them a picture of a princess with a feather around her head, a symbol of the monarchy that once ruled the kingdom of Hawaii.
Ako had students draw native Hawaiian birds. Maile Asuncion, 9, draws a red iiwi, also known as a red honey creeper.
Until she was 7 years old, she and her family lived in a cottage behind her grandfather’s house near the historic Waiola Church, which burned down, and where the princess is buried. The cottage burned down, as did his grandfather’s house, forcing him to move to Kihei.
Maile and her family were unable to return to their new home in a condo, which was spared but was in a burn zone. They now live in the hotel where his father works.
Many of Maile’s friends have left school, including her best friend, whom she desperately wants to see again: “He’s still in Maui. But I don’t know where he is now.” _ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through AP’s partnership with The Conversation US, with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. AP is solely responsible for this content.
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