Kamehameha Schools spent about $273 million on educational outreach programs in its most recent fiscal year — up 9.2 percent from the prior year — to extend its impact on Native Hawaiian keiki beyond the walls of its three main campuses.

In addition to the increased spending, the schools also reached a greater number of Native Hawaiian children and their families — more than 38,000 in the 2007-2008 fiscal year, an increase of 7.2 percent over the previous year.

While officials point to the latest outreach data as a sign that the trust is doing more to impact the education of Hawaiian children, they admit that there is more to be done.

The data is being released today as the school celebrates Founder's Day honoring Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, whose will created the trust.

"Over the past year, we've worked really hard on funding programs that we know will have either a direct impact on the student themselves or a very large impact on those who teach that student," said Dee Jay Mailer, chief executive officer of Kamehameha Schools.

Over the years, some within the Native Hawaiian community have criticized the trust for not doing enough for the education of all Hawaiian children, not just those who attend its campuses. Mailer said she acknowledges the trust has to do more to reach more Hawaiian keiki.

"We want to make sure that where we have invested is working. And where it is working, we will expand," Mailer said. "There is absolutely more that we can do, but we want to do it because we know it will create the results that we're hoping for."

The trust spends up to 6 percent of its endowment on education programs each year. The endowment was worth about $9.1 billion as of June 30, 2007, up from $7.7 billion a year before.

PROGRAMS EXPAND

For the past three years, schools officials say Kamehameha has partnered with dozens of community organizations, education providers and the public school system to benefit the learning of Native Hawaiian children across the state. They say the trust is spending some 70 percent more on educational outreach since it initiated its Education Strategic Plan in 2005.

One area where Kamehameha has expanded is in its partnerships with the state Department of Education to reach the thousands of Native Hawaiian children in public schools.

There are an estimated 74,000 school-age Native Hawaiian children in the public or private school system, with only about 5,400 of them attending one of the Kamehameha Schools campuses.

"The majority of our Hawaiian children are not on our campuses," said Christopher Pating, vice president of Strategic Planning and Implementation. "How do we really serve our people? It's about getting out into the community and our schools," Pating said.

Kamehameha's literacy enhancement programs are an example of the kinds of partnerships that the trust has with the public schools. The program is concentrated in 14 public schools and is serving about 2,530 students from kindergarten to third grade. An additional nine schools are expected to join the program.

"We're predominately in schools in Native Hawaiian communities and have a high percentage of students performing below grade level in literacy," Pating said.

That particular program is showing measurable results, he said.

CHARTERS SUPPORTED

This past year Kamehameha Schools also continued to support the public charter school movement with some $9.8 million in per-pupil funding to 16 Hawaiian-focused charters.

"We are seeing very good gains in achievement at the charter schools," said Kamehameha Schools spokeswoman Ann Botticelli.

Kamehameha has expanded the number of preschool scholarships it offers by 48 percent. The school also offers nearly $24 million in pre-school and post-high school scholarships. It is also serving more than 10,000 children through its preschools, preschool scholarships and other educational partnerships.

After several years of aggressive growth, officials now say Kamehameha will enter a four-year evaluation phase to determine which of its programs are working and are having an impact on the learning of Hawaiian keiki.

"For those programs that we believe are doing well, we would continue to fund them and expand them," Mailer said.

Following the next four years of evaluation of its partnerships and programs, Mailer said the trust will go through another phase of growth to reach more children.