WAILUKU, Maui — Plans for extensive reuse of building materials and composting of green waste have earned the Old Maui High School restoration project a $248,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency.

EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson visited the Hamakuapoko site yesterday with officials from the Community Work Day program and the Friends of Old Maui High School.

"Revitalizing a historic building using new green building techniques is a win-win for the community and the environment," Johnson said in a statement. "Both energy and resources will be saved by incorporating green building concepts. We hope the Old Maui High School project will become a model for future restorations here in Hawai'i."

Maui High opened in 1913 as the island's first coeducational high school, its location central to plantation camps and busy Pa'ia town. To meet expanding enrollment, a new administration and classroom building, designed by noted Hawai'i architect Charles W. Dickey, opened in 1921. The 24-acre campus continued to grow with the addition of teacher cottages, a gymnasium, athletic fields, an agricultural complex and a cafeteria.

By 1939 there were 1,000 students at the school, but enrollment declined as the camps closed and the population shifted to Central Maui. The old campus closed in 1972 when a new Maui High School opened in Kahului, and many of the buildings were left to deteriorate in the isolated location amid farm fields.

The Friends group formed several years ago to clean up the site and rehabilitate the Dickey-designed building, with plans to rename it after Maui High's most noted graduate, the late U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink, a member of the Class of 1944.

Barbara Long, president of the Friends of Old Maui High School, said a team started work this month clearing material from school buildings that collapsed due to neglect, weather and fire, and sorting the debris into piles for composting and reuse.

"I'm surprised by the amount of lumber that can be recycled. There's gorgeous 75-year-old straight-grain fir beams and trusses," Long said.

The good stuff will be reused for construction, with some of the lesser quality material turned into paperweights and other keepsakes for alumni and supporters, she said.

Other "green" measures to be employed include on-site composting of brush, trees and weeds cleared from the property, and use of natural ventilation and other energy-saving methods.

Long said an estimated $6 million to $8 million will be needed to restore the historic building, with funding expected from public and private grants, and alumni donations. Former students and their families already have contributed $50,000, she said. "We've been getting everything from wrinkled dollar bills to $5,000 and $10,000 donations. It's just amazing," Long said.

A $10,000 gift came from Robert and Kim Kiyosaki. Robert Kiyosaki is a motivational speaker and author of the best-selling "Rich Dad Poor Dad" financial advice books. His father, Ralph Kiyosaki, was a former state schools superintendent and Maui High alumnus. Long said the archive to be built in part of the old cafeteria will be named in the elder Kiyosaki's honor. It will hold photos and memorabilia such as band uniforms and yearbooks collected from alumni.

In the meantime, the county's Old Maui High School Task Force continues to meet regularly to decide how to make use of the entire property, now under county control.

The county would like to build a residential treatment facility for substance abusers and the mentally ill, said Alice Lee, director of housing and human concerns and task force head. She said years of work lie ahead, including preparation of environmental studies and a master plan.

The Friends of Old Maui High School can be contacted at friends@oldmauihigh.org or at P.O. Box 792165, Pa'ia, HI 96779.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.