Prayers answered for ex-Catholic school families Long after the 2001-02 school year began, there were parents on Kaua’i waiting and praying, for a new, private Christian school that several parents were working hard to create. Their prayers were answered. The
Prayers answered for ex-Catholic school families
Long after the 2001-02 school year began, there were parents on Kaua’i waiting and praying, for a new, private Christian school that several parents were working hard to create.
Their prayers were answered. The Academy of Kaua’i, a Christian-based, college-preparatory high school on Ho’omana Road (German Hill) at Lihu’e Lutheran Church, will open to students on Sept. 14.
“We still have some parents, remarkably, who have kept their kids out of school waiting for this to happen,” said Michael Piano, the parent of two daughters who will attend the new private high school. “I find that to be incredible.”
The will have several classrooms, a library, a laboratory, an office, a large room with a stage and space for storage. The chapel will be used for a comparative religion course .
“It’s a remarkable campus,” Piano said.
Normally a traditional high school for grades nine through 12, this year only the school will offer an eighth-grade curriculum, as several seventh-graders from the now-defunct Saint Francis School in Lihu’e and their families expressed an interest in attending the new school, Piano said.
Saint Francis, a Catholic school operating out of the former Immaculate Conception School site for the past four school years, closed at the end of June amid dwindling enrollment and spiraling expenses.
It is the parents of former Saint Francis students, joined by many others, who rallied to start their own school after efforts failed to get the Catholic church organization in Hawai’i to support their effort to operate a Catholic high school in what is now the state’s only county without one.
Job one for the new school is to get at least 50 students enrolled, something that won’t be an easy feat, as many former Saint Francis students are enrolled in other Kaua’i schools and off-island private schools, Piano said.
Some parents risk losing deposits and tuition payments if they pull their children out of private schools to attend The Academy of Kaua’i, he explained.
Robert “Lopaka” Bodnar, who turned down another administrative position on Kaua’i to await word on the formation of the new school, is the charter principal of The Academy of Kaua’i. He was the last principal of Saint Francis.
Even with a statewide teacher shortage in the public schools, The Academy of Kaua’i has all the teachers it needs, most from the former Saint Francis School.
The new school will offer Spanish and American Sign Language classes, math and science.
Counselors will be available for each grade, and class sizes will be between 14 and 15 students each. An accreditation process begun at Saint Francis School will be transferred to the new school, with the accreditation process expected to be completed in February of next year, according to Piano.
Volunteers are being sought to sponsor students’ tuitions, donate equipment and materials, or teach at the school.
“We’re about giving children a quality education that will teach them life skills as well as academics, and will be based in Christian ethics but will be at an affordable tuition level,” he said.
Students will be required to do a minimum of 25 hours of community assistance, and parents must commit to at least 20 hours of community assistance to the school.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
