In 1921, a grammar school in Kona established its first 9th grade class. The school continued to establish 10th, 11th, and 12th grade classes as the years went on. The first graduating class was the Class of 1925. It was originally the only high school in the Kona District until Kealakehe High School was built in 1997, and serves rural South Kona. The campus originally consisted of the original buildings built in the 1910s and 1920s, many of which were replaced in the 1960s by the newer two story C, D, E, G, F, R, and S Buildings. In the early 1950s, the administration and library buildings were added. In the mid 1950s, the upper campus was built along with a new cafeteria. The upper campus was used as the elementary school, until the new elementary school opened down the street in 1999. In 1958, the shop buildings were added. In the 1960s, the newer two story four wing C, D, E, G and F buildings replaced the old three wing building. Around the same time, the school added bleachers to Julian Yates field along with the R and S buildings replacing old ones, and the new state of the artEllison Onizuka Gymnasium opened in the early 1970s. Not long after, a new locker room and band room was built right above Julian Yates field. The only two original buildings remaining on the campus today are the Ag building and one on the upper campus, now Konawaena Middle School. Throughout the first 40 years, Konawaena operated on what is known as the "coffee schedule," where summer vacation was shifted to September through November to allow children to help with harvesting coffee cherries. The coffee schedule made it impossible for Kona to field a football team because potential players were picking coffee. Child labor laws contributed to the demise of the coffee schedule, which was ended in 1966. Today Konawaena has successfully grown to encompass a middle school and an elementary school Kealakekua., the total school population is around 825 students. In 1995 it held the most students in the whole state, a total of 3,900 in the high school alone. Altogether, that same year there were about 5,000 on the campus grades K-12. The current principal is Shawn S. Suzuki, former band teacher and vice-principal. Suzuki replaced Dr. James Dumaguin who died in 2005. Konawaena High School's rival is Kealakehe High School.
