The grass hasn't grown in yet, the sick room is a cot in front of principal Edna Hussey's desk, and the 32 new preschoolers won't start until tomorrow.

Other than that, the new $15 million Mid-Pacific Institute Preschool and Elementary School is up and rolling.

The addition of an elementary and preschool to the 36-acre Mid-Pacific campus marks the biggest private-school expansion in the state this year and makes Mid-Pacific one of the few that offers families a place where students can start preschool at 3 years old and stay on the same campus until they graduate and go off to college.

"That's the idea — that when a child begins preschool they will continue all the way through 12th grade," said Hussey.

For families that means they can avoid the stress of testing and admissions that can intrude several times in a child's academic career.

"It's one less test we have to go through," said Mid-Pacific parent Lauri Madanay, whose daughter Jillian is a second-grader. "Going through testing, I think it's more stressful for the parents than the kids. It's torture."

Parent Randall Sakumoto said "it does relieve the stress of having to apply to a new school for middle and high school, but the other nice thing is the continuity of the educational system from beginning to end.

"You can be accepted at preschool and my understanding is you're automatically accepted at kindergarten, so there's no need to test again."

Sakumoto, who had to apply at preschool and then kindergarten for his second-grader, said it's hard to know what school is best when your child is 3. But he said "you definitely want that option of enrolling in preschool and going through graduation.

"If it fits them well, you're set," he said. If it doesn't, you can always switch.

While a spokesperson for the Hawai'i Association of Independent Schools, to which Mid-Pac belongs, said there is no particular trend toward a preschool-through-12th grade education, several schools in Hawai'i, including some on the Neighbor Islands, are offering that option. But Mid-Pac is the largest.

"I certainly applaud them for adding the preschool," said HAIS executive director Robert Witt. "That's an important social issue that's being addressed. When we met with (House) Speaker Calvin Say during Private School Day at the Capitol, he said he'd hoped we'd be thinking of adding more capacity at the preschool level to support the overall state effort to build early childhood programs. There were a number of schools who said they were looking at that possibility."

Mid-Pacific president Joe Rice said along with helping the school compete more effectively, the preschool answers a community need.

"You do a better job educating the kids if you have them from early years," said Rice, "but, also, you develop a lot more pride in the school and you have deeper relationships with the parents because they're with you so many years. That's one thing Punahou, Iolani and Maryknoll have had over us."

The merger created major bonuses for the elementary school — expanded classrooms, a large grassy field for PE and after-school sports, separate sports courts and baseball batting cage, and an art studio and "trike track" for preschoolers along with a 6-to-1 student/teacher ratio in the preschool.

The elementary school didn't sprout overnight, though. A year ago the former Epiphany School, a K-6 campus squeezed into a small Kaimuki location between the H-1 freeway and a church, merged with Mid-Pacific. Sixth grade moved to the Mid-Pacific campus last year. The new elementary building on Mid-Pac's Manoa campus marks the completion of the move.

The elementary and preschool includes 14 classrooms and 10 additional teachers, which allowed the school to expand by 104 students for a grand total of 251 in preschool and elementary, the most the elementary school has ever had.The whole campus has almost 1,300 students.

"Every single one of our teachers moved with us, including the office staff and the maintenance person, Louie Rivera," said Hussey. "It's the same family up here."

But now Hussey sits in on Tuesday meetings of multiple principals for a school complex that teaches children from ages 3 through 18. Among the topics they will consider is sharing high-value programs in the elementary school with the middle and high school campuses, and vice versa.

The elementary school is already known for its progressive and unique character education module that starts in kindergarten and continues through fifth grade, training students in peer mediation, conflict resolution and peace education.

"We're going to try to continue the peer-mediation program through the middle and high school and build the choral program through the middle school," said Hussey. "Diane Koshi, our music teacher, has already offered it to the middle school. And they will also pick up peer counseling. And for us there's the addition of after-school sports programs. Boys and girls volleyball and girls basketball."

The after-school sports were available last year, but it meant busing the children from the old site to the new.

"Peace House," the homey cottage where the character education/peer mediation sessions take place, has been re-created on the new campus. As always, entry requires quiet voices and that shoes be left at the door.

"If they need to talk, they (students) put a note in the mailbox for us," said teacher and counselor Shirley Rivera. She said the program results in fewer conflicts between students in general, while giving them the tools to resolve issues.

"They learn to listen, how to settle conflicts and be respectful," she said.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.