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Aloha HE'E Members,
We received the below request from Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs (HIPA) to support their grant application to the Ford Foundation. They are seeking funds to support a 21st Century Schools planning effort to find innovative ways to rebuild our public schools. I have drafted a letter of support for the grant application. Please review the attached draft and send your comments. If you have questions or concerns please let me know. Our response is due by Nov. 10, so I would appreciate your feedback by Nov. 6. If I do not hear back from your organization, I will assume you are supportive of the letter.
I look forward to your response.
Mahalo,
Cheri
Dear Cheri,
The Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs (HIPA) is submitting a grant application to the Ford Foundation to assist in our effort to support the Governor's initiative to rebuild our public schools. Ford Foundation has been a staunch supporter of urban renewal efforts and they are encouraging our submission of our ambitions statewide project. We feel that a letter of support from He`e would greatly enhance our application.
Hawaii, like school districts throughout the country, suffers from aging schools, repair and maintenance backlogs, and budget shortfalls. The result is insufficient government resources to ensure that students are provided adequate classrooms and facilities to enhance learning and student achievement. In Hawaii, the repair and maintenance backlog for 2010 was approximately $392 million for the Hawaii Department of Education's 260 public schools statewide. Coupled with State government addressing a $1.3 billion deficit, deep cuts to government operations and services are currently being implement. The DOE reported that the average age of Hawaii's public school is 65 year old. The 21st Century Fund ranked Hawaii last in the U.S. in capital outlay fed, leaving minimal funding for school repair and maintenance, let alone needed facilities upgrades to meet the demands of 21st century learningor school construction. In addition, the high cost of housing increasingly burdens Hawaii's people, and the lack of workforce and affordable housing, particularly in the urban core, is frequently cited as one of the most stressful and frustrating factors for families.
Fortunately, the state is embarking on a visionary and creative plan to rebuild our public schools by redeveloping school property to help fund new school construction and generate needed revenue for 21st century school facilities. While rebuilding aging schools, this project also redevelops the school land to allow innovative approaches for new workforce housing, community infrastructure and services, needed urban core services, and integrated vertical school campuses. Only by finding innovative funding sources such as this project, will Hawaii, and most likely other mainland communities, be able to rebuild their aging schools. In addition, only by using creative land use strategies such as this, will our community be able to revitalize our urban core and provide options for workforce housing and needed community services and infrastructure.
Please use the attached template as a guide if you wish. We have attempted to incorporate information about your organization. Your organization's personal comments are most important, so please take a minute to make the letter your own. We would greatly appreciate your letter of support as we embark of this new and exciting effort to bring 21st century schools to our Hawaii students.
We will be in contact with you next week to see if you have any questions and provide you more detail, if necessary.
We are meeting with the Ford Foundation on November 16, 2012. If you can provide me the letter by November 10th, it would be greatly appreciated, however, we are cognizant of the process you must go through.
Mahalo,
Jeanne Schultz Afuvai
Executive Vice President
Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs
585-7931 ext. 101
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