WAIKOLOA ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOL

Where: 68-1730 Ho'oko St., Waikoloa, Hawai'i District

Grade span: Kindergarten through seventh grade; next year, the school will expand to kindergarten through eighth grade.

Enrollment: 623 students

Race/ethnicity enrollment: White, 30 percent; Part-Hawaiian, 25 percent; Filipino, 10 percent; Japanese, 10 percent, other, 25 percent.

Eligible for free and reduced-price lunch: 35 percent

Special-education students: 10 percent

Computers on campus: 230

Principal: Kris Kosa-Correia

School nickname: Elementary, the Voyagers; middle school, the Paddlers.

School colors: Elementary, purple and white; middle school, red and black.

What are you most proud of? "For the elementary school, I am most proud of the great junior kindergarten/kindergarten program we have here," Kosa-Correia said. "We give our kindergarten students the gift of time before we send them on to the challenges of first grade.

"For the middle school, I am most proud of how the parents and the community have come together to get a middle school started in this community. Before this school year, our students had long commutes to a public charter school as their only option for middle school."

What is your biggest challenge? "My biggest challenge is keeping great teachers, good programs and a good core curriculum given the continual cuts through the weighted student formula," Kosa-Correia said. "The federal government and the state continually add more and more to our plate with less and less money to do it with. I am also fighting for the funds to get our middle school completed by the 2009-2010 school year."

Special events: Winter Songfest, Peace March, Read- Across America, Ho'olaulea, Voyager Trek Fun Run, Spirit Week.

History: The school was built about 14 years ago when the Waikoloa community was built. The school has a unique modern design and is laid out differently than all other schools in the state.

Web address: www.k12.hi.us/~waikoloa/

Phone: 808-883-6808