NANAKULI — Fewer than 50 people showed up last night at Nanakuli High and Intermediate School for a meeting intended to answer a challenge leveled by the state Board of Education a month ago.

The board had asked the community to demonstrate its solidarity regarding a growing grassroots effort to split the combined high school and intermediate school and create separate campuses for the older and younger students.

"Where's the community?" asked Dolly Naiwi, an educational assistant at the school since 1989. "If they aren't here we've got no voice."

The school split campaign was born of worries in Nanakuli over the well-being of seventh- and eighth-graders who associate with, and are influenced by, high schoolers. Residents have argued that under the current setup, younger students risk exposure to negative influences such as smoking and cutting classes. Naiwi said she has witnessed intimidation and bullying of younger students by their older counterparts.

Focusing on those concerns, state Rep. Karen Awana, R-44th (Honokai Hale, Nanakuli, Lualualei), who called the meeting, pointed out that so far this year one student has been sexually assaulted at the school, and that the campus has been the scene of 11 arrests.

"It's not always the quantity but the quality of those who attend," said Awana, who conceded that some might consider the turnout disheartening. "And we have a good cross-section of what the community does look like here tonight — we have representatives from the Legislature, the school administration, school organizations, the neighborhood board, parents and students."

"This is a start," added Kimo Keli'i, a main force behind the school split proposal, who presented a three-phase, five-year plan. "Before this it has mostly been hourly discussions amongst the community. Now that the issue has been raised, and as it starts with this little group it will have to expand. We're not expecting immediate results."

The state Department of Education has endorsed the split, with a caveat that parents, teachers, administrators and students mount a united effort and outline a way to bring about the transition.

Since then residents have been invited to brainstorming sessions. But before last night the community had not devised a specific course of action. Some residents want to divide the schools immediately. Others favor creating a new campus at a separate site.

Amy King, who heads the Nanakuli Parent, Teacher, Student Association, told the gathering her organization is 100 percent behind dividing the schools because of safety concerns. She said she attended one meeting in which every one of the 63 people present supported separation.

But school vice principal Flora Nash said that while moving one school to a completely different campus might be of some benefit, dividing the current campus into two schools would not. She said the problem is that too many students today aren't learning the common decency that students were traditionally taught in the past. An emphasis on love and respect would be of more value than dividing the school, she said.

School principal Levi Chang has said that ideally, creating a brand-new campus elsewhere for one of the schools would be best. But declining enrollment at both schools, coupled with the cost of building a new school and the high price of land, would render such an idea impractical, he said.

Chang has yet to endorse an idea favored by some community members to divide the school on the existing campus — even if it means erecting a fence to separate the younger and older students. That plan, Chang has said, would be "a split in name only" and would fail to eliminate the underlying conflicts.

But those favoring the school split vowed to continue the effort. "This is an issue that will not go away," Keli'i said.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.