When Anahola residents took a job-training program at the Kaua’i Community College in 1999, they learned how to make farming ventures successful. The program also inspired some to take a better look at how to forge a secure future for
When Anahola residents took a job-training program at the Kaua’i Community College in 1999, they learned how to make farming ventures successful.
The program also inspired some to take a better look at how to forge a secure future for their children, sparking efforts to study options.
The brainstorming led to the formation of Kanuikapono, a community group committed to implementing Hawaiian approaches to education, and is now ready to open a charter school in Anahola for Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian students.
Group members see the school as a way to help students understand Hawaiian values, history and culture, encourage them to excel in their studies and arm them with future job skills.
“It is a family-based [system]. We want to show the importance of the traditional core values of Hawaiians, to take care of the land, respect,” said Kamahalo Kauhane, a board member of Kanuikapono.
Last August, the Anahola group received approval from the state Board of Education to operate the school.
Currently, the group is negotiating with the state Department of Hawaiian Home lands for a school site to accommodate 54 students from kindergarten to the 9th grade. Plans call for the addition of the 10th, 11th and 12th grades in the future.
The group also is looking at placing an educational outlet at a 17-acre site in Anahola, where the Anahola Homesteaders Council plans to develop into a 16-million-plus community-commercial center.
The Anahola school is one of 25 charter school statewide that have been approved by the Board of Education. About half are Hawaiian-based.
Charter schools operate independently of the public school system but are funded by it.
Unlike public schools, charter schools are governed by a local school board elected by students, teachers, administrators and residents.
Charter school operators have more control over the curriculum and the hiring of teachers and lesson plans than those in the public system.
The Anahola charter school, to be developed under a five year program of Kanuikapono, specializes in Hawaiian language and culture, early childhood literacy, media and computer literacy, agriculture, entrepreneurship and environmental science.
A key program focus is to teach students the “core values of the Hawaiian culture – respect for each other and taking care of the land,” Kauhane said.
“We want to cultivate a 21st century ahupua’a for the students so they can understand what it [used to take] to live cooperatively in a community,” Kauhane said. The ahupua’a is the land between the mountain and the ocean that was home to ancient Hawaiians societies.
Students also will interact with community members, including longtime farmers, crafts people and kupuna, whose experiences will enhanced lessons, Kauhane said.
“We can pull in valuable resources from the community that we think our students can learn from and which we think will benefit the community,” Kauhane said.
The Anahola school is built around the concept of “classrooms without walls.” he said. “Instead of limiting ourselves to classrooms, we want our students to go out and engage activities.”
Some students can learn in the classroom, but others learn better “in hands-on projects that are outdoors. We want to give them that option,” Kauhane said.
Students who want to learn about farming can work in a garden and study different plants and their uses, group members said.
If students want to develop farms in a high-tech manner, they can plan plots on computers, keep charts and journals and monitor green houses, the groups said.
Although the charter school project is expected to start in September, the curriculum is still be being fine-tuned, Kauhane said.
Ipo Torio, executive director of Kanuikapono, and other group members have worked many hours to make sure the curriculum will help the group reach its project goals, Kauhane said.
As a way to make the best uses of resources, the 12 Hawaiian-based charter schools have formed an alliance called Na Lei Na’aau.
In the future, students from the Anahola charter school could visit charter schools on Oahu and the Big Island, allowing them to find out how other Hawaiian communities operate, Kauhane said.
“This is important because there are no funds for buildings from the DOE for the charter schools,” Kauhane said. “All the Hawaiian charter schools are scrambling to find funds, and we are no different.”
Kanuikapono has approached the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for funding, and plans to form “partnerships in the community,” including holding fund-raisers, to generate funds for school buildings, Kauhane said.
“We don’t have the funds right now, but we will find a way,” Kauhane said. “We think the school is a good idea. We would like to see a Hawaiian charter school in every ahupua’a.”
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
