LIHU‘E — As the next school year rolls in, a new private school will be up and running at the Lawa‘i home of the former principal of Kahili Adventist School, thanks to permits granted by the Kaua‘i Planning Commission Tuesday.
LIHU‘E — As the next school year rolls in, a new private school will be up and running at the Lawa‘i home of the former principal of Kahili Adventist School, thanks to permits granted by the Kaua‘i Planning Commission Tuesday.
The class IV zoning and special use permits will allow up to 14 children from kindergarten through 8th grade to be schooled at Kevin and Angela Kuzma’s home, which is on Koloa Road
in Lawa‘i.
Kevin Kuzma said the alternative home-school will follow Koloa Elementary School’s curriculum, and the children will take tests a couple of times a year to make sure they are keeping up with the state Department of Education standards.
“An ‘alternative home-school’ is, we will be home-schooling our children in our house, and we are allowing other parents to pay us to home-school their children,” Kevin Kuzma said. “We will offer the children the same curriculum we will be offering our children.”
Kevin and Angela Kuzma have been teaching for 16 years, and 12 of those years were spent teaching at Kahili Adventist School, where Kevin Kuzma worked his way up to the school’s principal position.
As the principal at Kahili, Kevin Kuzma was faced last semester with a decision that would force him to fire his own wife: The budget for the school’s upcoming year only allowed for one teacher, who would also be the school’s principal and secretary.
Taking a leap of faith, the couple quit their jobs and moved on to their own home-based school project.
“I wouldn’t have a job anymore,” said Angela Kuzma, adding that a set of things started happening that led them to decide to open the new school, despite their original plans to stay at Kahili indefinitely.
She said that by law, parents have to enroll their children in a public or a private school, but they can also home-school their children or provide them with some kind of alternative learning, as long as they notify the DOE and follow certain rules.
“We kind of crossed the home-school and alternative-learning together,” Angela Kuzma said. “We are not just a home-school. … It’s kind of a new concept.”
She said this type of alternative home-school is legal and acceptable. “People are just not used to it,” she said.
Kevin and Angela Kuzma have a masters’ degrees in curriculum and instruction and are devout Christians. But Angela Kuzma said they won’t be pushing religion on the students. Instead, they will teach them Christian values, such as how to be honest and kind.
The school is called Ken-Yen, which means “quest for knowledge,” according to Angela Kuzma.
As of Tuesday, there were nine students enrolled, and Angela Kuzma said she expects the class to fill up soon.
The school will operate from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Thursday, and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Fridays.
Visit www.ken-yen.com for more information.
• Léo Azambuja, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or lazambuja@ thegardenisland.com.
