Editor’s note: This Part 2 of a three-part series on Hawai‘i charter schools. Part 1 clarified some broad misconceptions of charter schools.
The main mission of Ke Kula Ni‘ihau O Kekaha Learning Center, a Laboratory Public Charter School is to provide a standards-based education based on the cultural values and language of the Ni‘ihau community.
The current enrollment is 38 students from kindergarten through grade 12. Classes are taught in the Ni‘ihau dialect until fourth grade, when English is introduced.
The students are involved in a number of problem-based and inquiry-based projects, which can be “overwhelming,” said Principal Haunani Seward.
They are completing a film project that they started 18 months ago taht tells the story of Kaluaikoolau, a man stricken with leprosy who refused to be sent to the settlement on Moloka‘i. He, his wife Piilani and their son Kaleimanu hid from the Provisional Government army in Kalalau Valley from 1893 to 1897.
Students researched the story, using primary resources at the Kaua‘i Historical Society. They acted and did the voice-overs for the film. They received permission from Francis Frazier to use her translation of a poem about the event dictated by Piilani, who emerged from the valley after Kaleimanu and Koolau died of the disease.
The film will debut in Kalaupapa before the end of the year.
Seward said the production involved much more than filming a documentary.
“It made modern history of Hawai‘i real for the students,” she said.
To avoid being captured, Koolau shot and killed Deputy Sheriff Louis Stolz of Waimea and two PG soldiers. Students discussed the ethical issues of his act.
The film will serve as an archival record of the Ni‘ihau dialect and will also honor the memory of that era of Hawaiian history, Seward said.
The film, which has English subtitles, will also be made available to other schools studying Modern History of Hawai‘i. It is another example of the collaborative relationship among Department of Education public schools, Kaua‘i complex area staff and KKNOK, Seward said.
The money to fund the film project came from grants. Seward said they rely on partnerships for many of their projects. Another project is a 20-foot topographical Ni‘ihau mapping project. Students will assist in the research of place names to attach to the map and the stories behind them by interviewing staff, parents and grandparents.
A private grant enabled KKNOK to share part of its facilities with a pre-school. Although not technically a part of the charter school, the pre-school allows students to be exposed during their language receptive years, Seward said.
Seward said KKNOK serves a unique community. Many of her students would have dropped out without the kind of learning environment KKNOK provides.
“They have difficulty assimilating in the mainstream public schools,” she said.
KKNOK has five full-time teachers and three part-time teachers that include Hawaiian native language teachers and credentialed, licensed teachers. They have one clerical staff member and one administrator, although Seward said she also serves as clerical staff.
The 40 students at Kanuikapono Learning Center Public Charter School in grades four through eight begin each school day by gathering together in two lines and presenting an oli, or chant, to their instructors to ask permission to enter the school grounds. Their request is granted based on the perceived sincerity of the students’ desire to share knowledge, said Lorilani Keohokalole-Torio, resource manager of the school.
Following the oli, students and staff gather in a circle to honor the concept of piko, or center of learning. Students may be asked to perform an oli paying tribute to Kalalea Mountain or to energize parts of their bodies through exercise. Participants share an inspiration and focus of the day. Announcements are also made at this time.
On regular school days, half the students then board a bus to a satellite site at Koolau Hu‘ia Church for language arts and social studies classes. The other half remain at Kalalea uka to work on math and science at their developing site. The two groups switch after lunch.
Whatever they learn in the classroom is applied when they do projects, Keohokalole-Torio said. For example, they apply math to build chicken coops. Science is applied when they figure out the timing for chickens laying eggs and the environment needed for these egg-layers. They have to determine marketability and cost saving strategies like using the fecal matter for fertilizer.
Fridays are project days. After the traditional oli and piko, students break up into smaller groups to work on selected projects that include hula, music and drama.
The theme for the year is Ho‘omaekawa‘a, the traditional place name for Donkey Beach. Kapule Torio Jr. and Pomai Vilaria are facilitating the project. The students will survey the site and the stream and learn water resource management. They will also study the history of the site.
They will learn oli and mele, or song, about the site written by Kainani Kahaunaele.
Drama is also tied into the theme as they are working on “Kawai Ola,” a play about water resources.
“On the community level, we want to encourage everyone to use the traditional place name to bring back the mana (power),” Keohokalole-Torio said.
The project also illustrates the school’s mission to cultivate the 21st century ahupua‘a, or land division.
The school’s greatest challenge is the facilities. They have moved a number of times, but things seem to be coming together, Keohokalole-Torio said.
A master plan calls for the main site to be a kindergarten through grade five campus next to an existing pre-school. They are currently working on a lease extension on three acres of land and on developing infrastructure for water to the site.
With the recent groundbreaking for a housing development, Kauhane said an educational component to service the community needs to be stressed.
Anuhea Naki is in the sixth grade and is a first-year student at Kanuikapono. She said she likes it better than her previous school.
“It’s more fun,” she said. “There’s more space to play and more activities. Instead of sitting in class, we go out to do something.”
Kalalea Kauhane said his school T-shirt, which reads “Native Education and Community Renewal,” shows what the school is all about.
Wailana Medeiros said she catches the Kaua‘i Bus to and from school. Even if the trip is a long one from her home in Hanama‘ulu, she said she prefers Kanuikapono over her previous school because of the outside activities and learning about ancient Hawai‘i and plants.
• Cynthia Matsuoka is a freelance writer for The Garden Island and former principal of Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School. She can be reached by e-mail at aharju@kauaipubco.com.
