LIHU‘E — Despite funding cuts, the Kaua‘i Community School for Adults will continue operating without a reduction in services, according to Helen Sanpei, principal of McKinley Community School for Adults, which now oversees the Kaua‘i school. It’s just going to
LIHU‘E — Despite funding cuts, the Kaua‘i Community School for Adults will continue operating without a reduction in services, according to Helen Sanpei, principal of McKinley Community School for Adults, which now oversees the Kaua‘i school. It’s just going to cost twice as much as it previously did for adults to achieve a GED diploma.
In his 2010 gubernatorial campaign, Gov. Neil Abercrombie put education as one of his top priorities, but nearly a year-and-a-half after he took office, cuts in education funds left adults trying to catch up with unfinished education unsure of their future.
“We are just so fortunate that Abercrombie included funding for the community schools for adults in his supplemental budget (for Fiscal Year 2013),” Sanpei said in a phone interview Tuesday. “We found out it late April.”
A reduced funding appropriated by the state Legislature and approved by Abercrombie, however, prompted some administrative changes, centralizing leadership.
“(Abercrombie) gave us $2.5 million, and we had to come up with a plan,” said Sanpei, adding that initially, state officials considered consolidating 11 statewide community schools for adults into five schools.
As discussions progressed, she said, the number of schools overseeing all other community schools for adults in the state gradually shrank to two.
Waipahu Community School for Adults oversees O‘ahu’s Wahiawa and Windward areas, and Big Island’s Kona and Hilo.
McKinley Community School for Adults oversees O‘ahu’s Farrington, Kaimuki and Moanalua areas, and also Maui and Kaua‘i counties. Because of a small number of students, Kaimuki and Kaua‘i don’t have a vice principal anymore, Sanpei said.
In May, the school’s latest Kaua‘i Community School graduation class was also its largest, with approximately 110 graduates. The school had been operating without a vice principal for the last two years, and Lisa McDonald had been coordinating the school during that time, according to Sanpei.
McKinley Vice Principal Randall Higa will oversee the Kaua‘i program, and Kaua‘i High School Vice Principal Mahina Ah Yuen will be the evening site coordinator to assist with the adult education on Kaua‘i, according to Sanpei, who said a second site coordinator for Kaua‘i is in the process of being selected.
“We want the Kaua‘i community to know that the Kaua‘i Community School for Adults will continue to provide as many services as it has always been,” said Sanpei, explaining that with the reduced funding, administratively, officials had to learn how to operate the schools in a “different fashion.”
The consolidation of statewide services under two umbrellas on O‘ahu is not the only change. It will now cost twice as much for adults to catch up with education.
Beginning this fall, the fees for the GED test will go from $70 to $150. The fee per prep course will also go up to $20 from $10. A fee of $22 for the course book and $10 for an optional calculator will remain the same.
Other classes offered by the school — Competency-Based High School Diploma Program, Adult Basic Education and English as a Second Language — will cost $20 per unit course each.
Fall classes are Aug. 21 through Oct. 30. Registration is ongoing from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the school’s office in the back of Kaua‘i High School in Lihu‘e. Call Kaua‘i Community School for Adults at (808) 274-3390 or Sanpei at (808) 594-0540 for more information.
