Farrington auditorium rebuild will go out to bid by year's end

KALIHI, OAHU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Students at Farrington High School will report for their first day of classes on August 6, and their auditorium will still be out of commission.

"I'm hoping within a year or two that we could get our auditorium back," principal Al Carganilla said.

Wire mesh surrounds the structure and Keep Out signs reinforce the message that the building is off-limits.

On November 23, 2012, a 40-foot section of the roof caved in during a rainstorm. No one was injured. Blame fell on a flaw in a support structure.

The Department of Education's current cost estimate to rebuild is from $8 million to $10 million. The project is now in a six-month long design phase. Bids go out toward the end of the year.

"We want to make sure it's right because when we design it and build it we want to make sure that we can accommodate our school as well as our community," Carganilla said.

He would like to see at least 100 more seats in the new building. The old building seated 1,100.

"We've bounced around a couple of things as far as adding more seats, maybe a second deck like some auditoriums have, or adding some offices or rooms," he said.

Without an auditorium the school will continue to present assemblies, theater performances and other functions in the gym and cafeteria.  Carganilla said he's had several inquiries asking when the building will be back.

"We've had people use it for other types of festivities," he said. "I'm sure when it's built they'll come and ask whether or not they can use the facility."

He said the cost for tearing down the structure and starting from scratch would have been around $34 million.

The auditorium was built in the mid-1950s. Carganilla said an updated building will bring it into the 21st century.

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