For decades now we in Hawai'i have talked about improving the quality of public education, about "fixing" our schools.

It's true that to do that requires a comprehensive approach on several levels, from examining curriculum to recruiting and retaining quality teachers to finding more efficiency in the pipeline between the state Department of Education and individual campuses.

But here's an easy one to fix.

As Advertiser columnist Lee Cataluna recently pointed out, the physical conditions at Nanakuli Intermediate and High School are more than just deplorable, they're downright appalling.

Piles of broken desks, chairs and bookshelves left decaying on campus, rusting in the rain; bathrooms with no soap or toilet paper; crumbling walls; overheated classrooms with no fans; and a science lab left broken — for years — so rusted and dilapidated that students have not been able to do experiments in the lab, they just show films.

SHOW OUR PRIORITIES

What message are we sending these kids (and their teachers and parents) by allowing this school to fall into such disrepair? Sadly, we're signaling loud and clear that education ranks low on our list of priorities.

Is that the right message?

Of course not, says DOE superintendent Pat Hamamoto.

"If we say we value education and we want our kids to value education then we need to have them walk into buildings that show them they have value."

Precisely.

So how could conditions be allowed to reach this point? It's far too easy, and often unproductive, to point fingers. Regardless of whether parents, school officials or the DOE should have done more, part of the reason things were allowed to reach this point is because there were no advocates for these kids, no one demanding more for them.

So we'll gladly take that challenge.

Let's go.

Step one: Hamamoto agreed to have the rusted piles of junk hauled to the curb, if the city would send its bulky pickup crew to collect it. Thanks, Mayor Mufi Hannemann — he agreed to have his city crew make that pickup.

Step two: Maintaining the bathrooms. Let's get real. Give the kids their soap and keep the bathrooms clean— isn't that what tax dollars are for?

Step three: Hamamoto says she'll have her maintenance crews install the fans, if someone provides the fans. Thanks to Gloria Brown, manager at City Mill in Wai'anae, her company will be donating half a dozen fans that meet DOE specifications. Great start. Anyone else?

Step four: With an eye on the state's $486 million surplus, Hamamoto will be asking the state Board of Education to sign off on her request for a one-time cash infusion for repairs and maintenance at Nanakuli and other campuses in dire need.

The board should vote that one in with flying colors.

The repair and maintenance backlog for Hawai'i's public school system is now at $500 million, Hamamoto says. And any infusion of cash can go a long way toward bridging that gap.

Left unchecked, and considering the average age of our school facilities at the DOE's 262-campus system is 59 years old, this is one problem that must not fester. Or we'll pay a much bigger price down the road.

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP

But it doesn't end there.

As Hamamoto points out, the school has had more than its fair share of property damage and theft and it's up to the community, too, to value the school: "We need to form a partnership with the community and work to ensure that this is a place the kids and the community can treasure."

We couldn't have said it better.

To her credit, Hamamoto, who in the mid-1980s served as vice principal for the Nanakuli campus, promised to work with the Nanakuli Homestead Association to build a better bridge with the community.

"You can hold my feet to the fire on that," she said.

You bet. So when's the first meeting?