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WOODWARD: I’m sorry – Iwashita. I’m getting a little punchy. It’s been a long day. <br />thth <br />If you went from Kindergarten to 6 grade, and now you are Kindergarten to 7 grade, you’d <br />think if you’ve got one more grade, that’s going to add more students. So I don’t know how you <br />would compare those numbers from the year previous when you were K through 6 – now you are <br />K through 7. So maybe you can address that. <br />SMITH: Yes, I can. As I said, in 1994 Waikoloa School opened with 320 students. <br />By 2003 – 2002, possibly – we were at 550 with just the K through 5; so K-5 has grown, okay? <br />And of course, every year that you would add a grade, you would add in terms of aggregate <br />number; so we were at about 550, and then last year we ran about 615, and this year we are at <br />th <br />710. And the 710 is not only the additional 7 grade, but our population in other grades has also <br />increased. So it really is going up in very real terms, not just in addition of a grade. And as we <br />watch the Kamakoa project coming, which is a workforce housing project, that will absolutely <br />bring us children in a way that some of the higher end things do not necessarily bring us children <br />into Waikoloa because the people who are buying, their children are grown. But Kamakoa will <br />definitely bring us children, and so we have to be planning for them. <br />WATANABE: Sure. Follow-up? <br />WOODWARD: If I might, Mr. Chairman. This really is not our bailiwick, I mean, we are <br />talking about it, but we have nothing to do with the Department of Education. We support your <br />efforts to get a school, to get improved school facilities. We are just asking questions to try and <br />find out what’s going on, but in point of fact we don’t have any power over that. <br />SMITH: Yes, sir. And we are quite aware of that. The important thing that we <br />want for this process and we want to model after what Kamakoa did, which is that in their <br />planning they do at least show a site. If people will leave a space for a school, the community <br />can go and work with the Department on actually getting a building there. But first, we need a <br />space for both our parks and community centers and the schools. And the site is the critical thing <br />that we want the County to understand our need for. Thank you. <br />WATANABE: Thank you. It doesn’t look like we have further questions. Gunner <br />Mench? <br />MENCH: Yes. My name is Gunner Mench. I live at 64-5245 White Road in <br />Waimea. I’ve been a Big Island resident now for 15 years. <br />And first, I want to say that this Plan you have before you, this 200-some-odd page Plan, is like a <br />process vehicle for the community; it really represents the consensus of the community as a <br />whole and its individual components in coming together to present to you a guideline for what <br />we see in South Kohala. And I urge you to please move this Plan forward as you have stated <br />earlier. And I thank very much the comments of Mr. Domingo in this regard. <br />EXHIBIT E <br />28 <br /> <br />