Hara has unfinished school business

Sherwood Hara, the first elected member of the state Board of Education

representing Kaua’i and Ni’ihau, wants back on the board so he can take care of

some unfinished business.

While serving on the BOE from 1980 to 1988, the

Hanapepe resident was co-author of the policy lowering class sizes to 20

students per teacher.

That is currently in effect for grades kindergarten

to two. The second phase – grades three to six – never was

accomplished.

“This continues to be a priority for me, for I believe small

class ratio enhances your child’s learning,” said Hara, who left the board in

1988.

He said he has four other priorities he would address if he is

elected again to the board:

l Every child in every public school in the

state should have a textbook for each of his classes. Textbooks are “the basic

tools behind learning,” he said.

l The policy for dealing with violence in

the schools should be revisited, as activities impacting the classroom have

become more violent, he contends.

l More attention, he says, needs to be

paid to vocational and technical education, especially with technological

advances made in the past few years.

l And teachers need to be provided

with the tools, including books, computers and training, and be freed from

extra tasks which take away from quality education time, he says.

“We

should strive to make the classroom and the teacher the best for the child, for

the best education the (state Department of Education) can provide,” stressed

Hara.

For example, he said, Maili Elementary School on O’ahu got funding

from the Legislature to install air conditioners in classrooms. Two years

later, the classrooms are still stifling hot, as Governor Ben Cayetano hasn’t

released the funds for the cooling system.

Hara said if he were the board

member from Kaua’i, he would have contacted Cayetano to encourage him to

release those funds.

Where school and teacher accountability are concerned,

Hara feels sanctions for under-performing schools seem punitive, especially

since teachers are the front-line providers of education.

Hara said he

would rather see a system that provides interim support for those

under-achieving schools, to bring them up to standards.

“Children are the

consumers of public education,” and the board, state and district

superintendents and everyone else involved in delivering public education need

to be accountable to students, parents and teachers, he said.

Everyone also

needs to understand that, outside of the immediate family, the teacher is the

most important person in a student’s life, Hara said.

“We need to realize

how important the teacher is,” he asserted.

Hara endorses the modified

school calendar, or the year-round schooling schedule some Kaua’i schools have

already adopted.

The long summer, where children aren’t stimulated like

they are in the classroom, is bad for learning, he said.

It’s a logistical

nightmare for everyone from district superintendent Daniel Hamada on down to

students and parents to have some Kaua’i schools on the modified calendar and

some not, Hara said.

“We’ve got to think of the child,” said Hara, 63. He

added some parents are against the modified calendar because of their work and

vacation schedules.

Hara said he is not against local school boards or

county involvement in the state’s public-school system. If county government is

to get involved, the questions are “How?” and “When?” he said.

If

construction of classrooms or maintaining schools’ physical environment is the

way county governments want to go, that’s probably OK for large, rich counties

like the city and county of Honolulu. But smaller, cash-strapped counties, like

Kaua’i, will have a hard time providing funds for schools, he

said.

Partnerships between state and county governments need to be

developed carefully, he noted.

Local school boards could fulfill a need for

providing information and networking capabilities the elected Board of

Education member could turn to, Hara said.

Hara said he would investigate

the reestablishment of district school advisory councils and library advisory

commissions. The two volunteer boards were done away with during budget cuts.

Hara recalls getting computers into the public libraries 20 years ago, to

allow those without home computers to access the World Wide Web and Internet

and do other types of research.

The computers in the public libraries also

provide a vital link to cultural events, as there are limits to what a small

island like Kaua’i can provide in terms of concerts, plays, and other cultural

opportunities, he said.

He would work for more books and computers for the

island’s public libraries, he said.

Hara, who holds college degrees in

social work and educational counseling, retired after 40 years with Kaua’i

Family Court, most of those as director.

He’s active in his church and

other volunteer organizations, and he reads to young people in the public

libraries and schools.

Staff writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at

245-3681 (ext. 224) and [pcurtis@pulitzer.net]