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Posted: Monday, June 18th, 2012 9:06 AM HST

DOE to develop strategic plan for school facilities

By Ken Hupp - 67AM KPUA News

The Department of Education is preparing to develop a strategic plan for school facilities that officials say will clarify the needs of aging campuses and spell out the state's vision for what 21st-century schools should look like. The plan will include a comprehensive inventory of Hawai’i's 256 public schools and their needed repairs, which the DOE hopes to complete by the end of 2013. Statewide, more than half of all schools are 50 years old or older, while some 16 percent were built before 1912. Just 3 percent are less than 9 years old. The inventory will give the department a better idea of what properties aren't being used to their potential — and whether there is unused land on campuses that could be leased out to commercial developments, with profits going into new school facilities.