Kaʻū High & Pāhala Elementary School is a public, co-educational high school, middle school and elementary school of the Hawaii State Department of Education. It serves kindergarten through twelfth grade and was established in 1881. It was the first high school established on the Big Island of Hawaii and the third public high school established in Hawaii, after Lahainaluna High School on Maui and President William McKinley High School, formerly Honolulu High School, on Oʻahu. The high school was established after the 1876 opening of the Hawaiian Agricultural Company (a predecessor of the ), at the time one of the largest most remote sugarcane plantations in the Kingdom of Hawaii. The plantation employed a large number of immigrants who wanted their children to have a high school education;