Preserving a Community Treasure—the Head Start Center

As told by Nancy Reyes, Site Manager
CDI Head Start Serving Hawaii County, Hawaii Program

The first time I saw the Head Start Center in the 100-year-old Keauhou School on the island of Hawaii, I was struck by the open building, wonderful views from the office, and soft breezes floating through the windows. "How lovely, inviting and charming," I thought.

Then I looked a little closer. I saw wear the years had added, dirt that seemed permanent, walls you could see through, and the shabbiness of this tired old school building. There was one toilet with no connection to any plumbing under the building. The electrical service had never been grounded. And a storage room housed strange plumbing and electrical connections that had been capped, but not removed.

My supervisor took one look and, holding her thumb and index finger slightly apart, she said, “I am this close to shutting you down.” She was right to consider that possibility. But where would we go with our 36 preschool children?

The CDI Hawaii Program team called a meeting with parents and staff to see if they could help us identify another location. We visited other childcare facilities to explore purchasing space or slots, or sharing our teachers. We worked with realtors who found some interesting warehouse space in an industrial area, but it was far from where our families lived. And, with no playground, few windows and steel walls, the space was hardly inviting to children. We found a vacant Veteran's Administration office building that could have been renovated at a high cost, but it too had no playground. Finally, we talked with the Department of Education and they had no room for us.

Just as the Hawaii Program team was getting desperate, our Head Start parents and children made it clear to us that that they didn’t want to leave the Keauhou School at all. Could we find a way to save their historic Head Start home?

Giving New Life to a Landmark Building

A civil engineer assured us that the patch worked school was not going to fall off the mountain in the near future – although there were many weak spots in the floor and walls that needed immediate attention.
To fund the renovations, CDI submitted a proposal for “one-time funding” in June 2009 to the Office of Head Start in Washington, D.C. At the same time, our team started to get bids for the renovation work, and removed old unusable equipment and supplies during the summer when the children were not attending.

On March 31, 2010, shortly before the end of our first year of operation, we got the good news – we had the funding to fix the building!  Now the rush was on to move the project forward. The CDI Hawaii team had already completed some of the permitting work, received authorization from the landlord, and removed the most hazardous items.

Respecting a Century of History

We chose a contractor who had extensive experience in historic preservation. His vision, and that of the community, was to restore the school as close as possible to its authentic and historic state. The original windows were salvaged, along with wood and hardware from other old schools on the island, and put to good use.

For months, the school actually looked worse than before. Walls were torn out, revealing uninvited creatures, both living and dead. Windows were taken down to replace the cords and missing and broken panes of glass. Blackboards that had deteriorated and narrow impractical shelving were removed. A rainbow of colors was visible on the walls and woodwork since the paint, much of it lead-based, had been changed many times by many painters over the years.

The kitchen, where teachers had once lived, seemed to be trying to leave the rest of the building. You could put your hand into the gap that was created as that part of the foundation eroded. The downstairs of the building had once held the original kitchen where children and staff were served their meals through the cafeteria window. When we initially looked at this “first floor,” it was impossible to imagine anyone preparing food there. The room was full of junk, insects and rats' nests. Mold was everywhere.

Now, the office floors have been stripped and resurfaced to show the original wood.  Every window opens and closes. Gone are the unattractive window cords, decaying wood shelving, and old chalk and bulletin boards. All the walls, ceilings and window frames have new paint. The windows sport new screens and window coverings, and the classroom floors have new tile. The showers in the bathrooms were removed, and new toilets and child-sized cabinets installed in their place. Damaged wood was reinforced or replaced. A formerly useless niche became a new locking storage closet, and a half wall was built to create storage for teaching materials.

Most of the renovations, however, are not even visible. The foundation was restored and the structure wall underneath the building was stabilized. Massive posts and piers, and a concrete reinforced retaining wall now support the building. New plumbing was installed throughout the building. And you can now walk through the school without fear of dropping through the floor.

The final and most dramatic part of the restoration was painting the exterior. In just two days, it went from splotchy yellow and a mix of other colors to an historic sunset gold and green. Staff and community members have one thing to say when they see the result – “wow!”

It Takes a Community

Our Area Coordinator's leadership inspired the community. The Rotary Club adopted our Head Start center, and removed tons of rock to enhance the play area with a tricycle path, sandbox and grass. Their efforts attracted other helpers. A young girl and her mother, visiting from California, created a planter box with flowers for the playground area. Even the workers brought family members to donate time and energy to the project.

At our open house, the dedication of the building was blessed according to traditional Hawaiian custom. Lily Kong, a former student now in her eighties who graduated from Keauhou when it was anelementary school, helped with event protocol. Her mother, her children and her grandchildren had also attended school at our site. Lily recounted an average day at the school, describing the victory garden on the playground during World War II, the outhouses, and children bringing their own lunches. She talked about the teachers living at the school and the regular use of the school bell to bring the children inside. And, she described a community with few of the amenities we consider essential today. The road was a single lane, unpaved track. Stores were very far away. Families used the barter system to obtain necessities.

In the future, we hope to capture the stories of former students like Lily Kong in a place where visitors can see and listen to them. We also plan to approach the Historical Society of Hawaii to enter our building on the registry of historic buildings. The school is once again alive with the voices of our Keiki (Hawaiian for children) and the community has a beautiful “new” building that preserves some of the island’s early heritage.