At Diane and Mario Villatora’s home in Kalaheo, where three of their children have been without public schooling for nearly two weeks, art class is in session. The Villatora children and their friends have been learning ceramics and acrylic painting,
At Diane and Mario Villatora’s home in Kalaheo, where three of their children have been without public schooling for nearly two weeks, art class is in session.
The Villatora children and their friends have been learning ceramics and acrylic painting, with their clay creations fired up in an outdoor kiln that Mario Villatora operates. The younger children are also tutored by their older sister Chantel, a graduate of Kaua’i High School.
Mario, formerly with Amfac Sugar Kauai’s Lihu’e Plantation and currently in-between jobs, talks proudly about what he and his wife are doing to keep their children busy as the public school teachers’ strike drags on.
Clay faces are one of the projects, and tomorrow night the family will journey to Salt Pond Beach Park for an overnight fishing excursion. Daily walks down to Kalawai Park for basketball or baseball ensure the children get recommended dosages of exercise.
The children are Kaua’i High School junior Alaric, 16, Alaina, 15, a freshman, and Asia, 12, a sixth-grader at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School.
What the Villatoras are doing is just one example of how some families are sticking together and keeping the children mentally and physically stimulated while the strike keeps their schools closed.
Darnell Aquino makes regular trips to the public library to check out books for son Kellen, a first-grader at King Kaumuali’i Elementary School, who like sister Alyssa, a fifth-grader at the same school, are keeping up with their SURF (Silent, Uninterrupted Reading for Fun) logs and writing in their journals every day.
“They have to read a book a day,” Aquino said.
But like many students on the island, they have grown bored not attending school on a regular basis, she said. Their teachers gave them math homework to last a few days, but that was all completed last week, she added.
The strike has in some ways united neighborhoods, where households take turns hosting children from nearby homes, said Bob Bartolo, owner of All Kaua’i Cleaning and father of another King Kaumuali’i Elementary School fifth-grader, Dominique, 10.
While Dominique’s mother works mornings, she makes sure Dominique keeps up with her studies in the afternoon. Bob Bartolo spends two weekdays a week and most mornings with his daughter.
But he said he likes the concept of neighbors helping neighbors, encouraging children to stay mentally ready to resume school as soon as the contract dispute is settled.
Bartolo and his Wailua Houselots neighbors have been urging children to continue reading, do assigned homework and go to the computer with educational software, though he admits many children would rather play computer games.
He said he also likes parents sharing responsibilities and working things out for the good of the children.
Bernard Carvalho’s daughter Brittney, 12, is at Kapa’a Middle School when school is in session, but is at home with her mother now that school’s out. Besides reading with her mother, ‘ukulele, sports and other activities keep the child busy, said Bernard Carvalho, who works for the Kaua`i County Division of Parks and Recreation.
“My kids are home, doing domestic chores,” laughs Bo Fabro. “They don’t love it at home. They want to go back.” Son Reese is a senior at Kaua’i High School, and daughter Erin, 13, is in eighth grade at Chiefess Kamakahelei.
Reese is preparing to attend Kaua’i High School’s prom this Saturday at the Marriott, and has been informed he can graduate with credits accumulated over the first three quarters of this school year. He plans to attend Kaua’i Community College in August.
His father, though, hopes the state and teachers can work things out so his children can get back into the classrooms.
Telissa Agbulos is a senior at Waimea High School who has applied to and been accepted at the University of Hawai’i-Hilo, where she plans to major in business administration.
While working part-time at Rollin-N Dough, a bakery in Kekaha near her house, Agbulos got permission to turn the family home into prom central for Waimea High. Their prom is also this Saturday, at the Radisson Kaua’i Beach Resort, and as a member of the prom committee, she has offered her abode as the place to meet and make decorations and do other party-related chores, she said.
While having the spare time helps when planning the prom, she still misses the classroom.
“I hope I get to go back” to school, Agbulos said. While taking a correspondence algebra class, she has run into the difficulty of having no one to check her work.
Also, while some of her cousins and friends have been using their idle time to check out beaches and the other side of the island, visit boyfriends and do other cruising, Agbulos has opted to work.
Like some other students on the island, club volleyball fills some of the social void of missing classmates and helps keep the participants physically fit, Agbulos added.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
