An illustration shows the location of the new Central Maui school site in Waikapū. PC: Hawaii School Facilities Authority
The development of the new Central Maui school in the Waikapū Country Town project area is moving forward, recently earning the Hawaiʻi School Facilities Authority a national grant for its innovative and sustainable design. The $382,500 award will help accelerate the use of mass timber and biophilic design in the planned middle school campus, which is targeting an opening in fall 2030.
The Hawaiʻi School Facilities Authority was one of four winners in the 2025 Mass Timber Competition: Building Sustainable Schools, a competition sponsored by the Softwood Lumber Board and the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service. The competition awarded a total of $1.8 million to projects promoting mass timber use in K-12 educational environments.
Design focuses on culture and sustainability
The winning design for the new Central Maui school incorporates mass timber — an engineered, fire-resistant wood product that combines smaller pieces of wood into large, strong structural components — and biophilic design, which connects building occupants with their environment.
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Riki Fujitani, school facilities executive director, pointed out that the design-build approach allows the authority to choose durable, sustainable materials. He added that in Hawaiʻi, “honoring our host culture and building in harmony with nature and respect for the ‘āina are critically important.”
Mass timber is seen as an effective alternative to traditional steel and concrete, offering benefits such as sustainability, fire resistance and faster construction. These advantages can mitigate supply-chain challenges and material costs. The new campus is planned to house both an elementary and a middle school with a capacity of up to 1,650 students, although the initial phase opening in 2030 will be a middle school designed for 300 students. The team designing the project is a collaboration between Hawaiʻi Off-Grid, MKThink, R.T. Tanaka Engineers, the Moʻolelo Group and the authority.
Project funding and timeline
The Hawaiʻi State Legislature has allocated $76 million to date for the new campus. This initial funding is a significant jump from the $20 million initially proposed for planning and design. The authority expects to have a final master plan for the school approved before the end of 2026.
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The project aims to address capacity issues in Central Maui, which were exacerbated by the August 2023 Lahaina wildfire displacement and ongoing housing development in the region.
Community engagement and next steps
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The project continues to rely on community input. The authority’s Moʻolelo Group is leading the community engagement process for the school’s development. Community members were invited to open house informational sessions in September at the University of Hawaiʻi Maui College’s Pilina Center. There, they discussed the project’s scope and timeline. According to project officials, curated public feedback is being logged. It will be considered during the ongoing planning phase.
The authority is working to establish statewide standards for school construction, including design guidelines, construction specifications, standard technical drawings and a commissioning plan. These are aimed to make new schools scalable and repeatable across the state. These standards are part of the process being applied to the Central Maui school project.
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Interested residents can visit the project website, newcentralmauischool.org, for updates.