Great Minds Capital Campaign
Building Our Future at Assets School
Assets School is embarking on two landmark projects at the K-8 campus that bring one transformative vision to life—expanding the spaces where students can explore, create, and grow.
Arts Complex and Donald C. Brace Library
The new Arts Complex and Donald C. Brace Library will serve as a vibrant indoor hub for imagination and innovation. The school's first stand-alone library, The Donald C. Brace Library, and our first stand-alone classrooms for art, music, drama, and makerspace/robotics will serve our great minds by unleashing their creativity, many talents, and inspiring their desire to read. We look forward to sharing with you in the near future the naming rights to this outstanding complex with other naming opportunities available. Groundbreaking is planned for June 2026, with completion expected in summer 2027. Watch the flythrough video below to explore renderings of the new space.
Playground
Complementing the Donald C. Brace Library and classrooms is our new playground, which will reimagine the beloved play structure, Ala Anuenue, by preserving what students cherish while introducing exciting new features inspired by their ideas. With swings, towers, hidden nooks, and even a zip line, it will offer a dynamic environment that inspires movement and creativity. Take a look at the rendering below to explore these features. Like the original Ala Anuenue playground build in 1994, we will complete the new playground through a community build in summer 2026. Please indicate your interest here in being part of it. We are truly grateful!
Explore What We're Building
Take a closer look at what’s taking shape across campus. Each project is thoughtfully designed to support how Assets students learn, create, and grow.
The Donald C. Brace Library Fuels a Love for Reading
The Donald C. Brace Library will ignite our students’ love of reading and fuel their imaginations. Designed as an inspiring and supportive learning environment, it will provide spaces to read, write, study, and collaborate. The Donald C. Brace Library will be a focal point of our K-8 campus, offering specialized resources, adaptive technologies, and more than 3,000 square feet of dedicated learning space. This will be the first permanent Library Building at our K-8 campus.
The Assets Makerspace for Robotics, Engineering, & More
#GreatMinds build greatness, and we are creating our first permanent Makerspace Building for robotics and other tinkering! Our K-8 dedicated makerspace will foster hands-on, project-based learning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. Our makerspace curriculum will prepare our students for our rigorous, award-winning high school robotics program, which is internationally recognized.
The Assets Music Studio
Our #GreatMinds will have a state-of-the-art music studio complete with a soundproof audio booth to digitally capture instrumental or vocal performances. Music provides an outlet for students to improve vocabulary, and their verbal and visual working memory while boosting self-esteem and confidence. This will be the first permanent Music Studio Building at the K-8 campus.
The Assets Drama Studio
What better place to embrace your theatrical self than Assets’ new Drama Studio? Designed as a black box theatre, it will have the capacity to welcome families and fans alike. Some of the world’s top actors and producers are dyslexic and/or gifted, and drama provides a multifaceted approach to learning—including building reading, comprehension, and communication skills. This will be the first permanent Drama Building on the K–8 campus. Each year, our students perform a major production, typically hosted at Palikū Theatre, after honing their skills right here at Assets.
The Assets Art Studio
Our #GreatMinds will have a new Art Studio to fuel their creative talents and a gallery space to showcase their outstanding work. Students will be inspired inside the classroom or outside on the covered lanai while painting, drawing, or crafting their pottery steps away in a new kiln. Art provides a valuable canvas for learning, communication, and emotional expression. This will be the first permanent Art Building at our K-8 campus.
The Ala Anuenue Play Structure, Reimagined
Our new playground at Assets will be a place where imagination and movement come together. K-8 students were surveyed and asked questions about their favorite parts of the playground, what they don't use, and what they wish they had to help inform the redesign. New features include a zipline and slide, with many familiar favorites preserved!
Project Timeline
Construction will be carefully managed to minimize classroom disruption, though some disruption is inevitable. Parents will receive detailed scheduling updates and will be consulted throughout the process. Additionally, this page will be updated with new information as we receive it.
Why We’re Making These Spaces Permanent
Assets School has a long history of adapting to meet our students’ needs. Originally established at Pearl Harbor, our K–8 program moved in 1992 to our current campus at 1 Ohana Nui Way, near Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu. At the time, the land was leased from the U.S. Navy, and lease restrictions prevented the construction of permanent buildings. To provide learning spaces, we installed temporary classroom structures—trailers—intended as short-term solutions.
Years later, we purchased the land, securing a permanent home for our community. Yet these temporary classrooms have remained, serving multiple generations far beyond their intended lifespan. While functional, they no longer reflect the caliber of teaching, creativity, and innovation that define our strength-based curriculum for gifted, dyslexic, and diverse learners.
Now is the time to transform these spaces into purpose-built classrooms and a thoughtfully designed playground. These spaces will not only enhance learning but also foster play, collaboration, and exploration, providing students with inspiring, functional, and timeless environments that empower them to thrive—today and for generations to come.
From A Vision to Reality: Join Us in Building the Future
We invite you to be part of this transformative journey. Your support of our capital campaign will help turn this long-held vision into reality—ensuring that current and future generations of Assets students have access to the inspiring, purpose-built spaces they deserve. Every gift, no matter the size, brings us closer to a campus that truly reflects the strength, creativity, and brilliance of our learners. Together, we can build a future as extraordinary as the students we serve.
Want to learn more about our Capital Campaign? Please reach out to Linda Jameson Myers, Vice President of Institutional Advancement, via email at lmyers@assets-school.org or phone at 808-440-3605.