Posted on: Thursday, September 15, 2005
Charter's Hau'ula branch invaluable
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer
|
|
|
Students in the combined fourth- through seventh-grade class read together at Halau Lokahi Ko'olauloa charter school in Hau'ula. Core courses are taught in the morning and students are offered physical education, hula or art instruction in the afternoon.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
CLOSER LOOK WHERE: 54-010 Kukuna Road, Hau'ula PHONE: 293-8948 PRINCIPAL: Po'o Dovey Silva SCHOOL NICKNAME: The winger SCHOOL COLORS: Royal blue HISTORY: The campus opened last year at Hau'ula Beach Park as a branch of Halau Lokahi Public Charter School, based in Honolulu. COMPUTERS: Three ENROLLMENT: 30 in K-11th grade Percentage of low-income enrollment: 100 percent |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Students joke with teacher Adeline Keama, right, after a game of Simon Says at Halau Lokahi Ko'olauloa. There are 30 students enrolled at the small school, which must turn students away.
|
|
|
|
|
HAU'ULA — Before any lessons are taught at Halau Lokahi Ko'olauloa charter school, children must first learn self-respect and self-responsibility, values their teachers consider key to learning — and also a challenge for many of the school's students.
"There are kids that come to us who cannot read, write or spell," said Dovey Silva, school po'o, or head. "These kids that we have here were the kids that were left behind."
Halau Lokahi Ko'olauloa opened last year with 32 students and three teachers at Hau'ula Beach Park, holding lessons for 2 1/2 months on lauhala mats before moving to its current location at the Hau'ula Community Center.
Silva, a city bus driver at the time, convinced Halau Lokahi, a public charter school, to open a Hau'ula branch. It struggled in its first year but graduated two students and has helped others improve skills and their attitudes toward school, she said. Students change because they know they are loved, respected and expected to perform, Silva said.
Students work on core courses in the morning and physical education and hula or art in the afternoon.
A kupuna also is teaching aerobics and students are rewarded for their efforts by going for a swim at the beach or with popcorn and a movie.
The school can't keep up with the requests for admissions, she said.
"People are coming and I have to say no and I'm sorry but I can not take them," Silva said. "I have no room."
What are you most proud of? The learning, including 11th-grader Daylen Chang, who went from reading at a second-grade level to reading at an 11th-grade level in one month.
Best-kept secret: Children are learning to work as a family, an 'ohana, loving one another not teasing and not labeling.
Everybody at our school knows: Kumu Dovey, said student Kehaulani Kiaaina, 11. She's the meanest, strictest and nicest teacher there, Kiaaina said.
Our biggest challenge: Facilities. The school leases two rooms and a closet that serves as the computer lab at the community center but had to turn away students for lack of space.
What we need: A vehicle to transport the children to activities and excursions. A bigger, rent-free facility.
Projects: Students have made Hawaiian flags and taken them to graves on Veterans Day, cooked a seven-course meal for seniors on Valentine's Day and created their own tapa print hula costumes.
Special events: A Taste of Hau'ula, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Nov. 12 at Hau'ula Beach Park. The proceeds from the fundraiser, which is sponsored by Hau'ula Ice Breakers, will benefit the school.
Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.
