Sometimes, Hawaiian-time thinking has detrimental consequences. While state Department of Education officials on Kaua’i expect the normal rush of kindergarten registrations in mid-July and August, the plain fact is that registrations for those new students is slower this year than
Sometimes, Hawaiian-time thinking has detrimental consequences.
While state Department of Education officials on Kaua’i expect the normal rush of kindergarten registrations in mid-July and August, the plain fact is that registrations for those new students is slower this year than anyone in the DOE can remember.
Where normally some 900 students have registered for kindergarten by now, the figure is only around 600, said Bonnie Lake, project manager for Happy Start, a program that helps prepare children and their families for kindergarten.
King Kaumuali’i Elementary School in Hanama’ulu, which usually has between four and five kindergarten classes of up to 20 students each, has enough kindergarteners registered now for just three classes, said Daniel Hamada, Kaua’i district DOE superintendent.
‘Ele’ele Elementary School barely has enough students registered for one kindergarten class, he said.
And, because of immunization, physical examination, registration and paperwork and other requirements, parents can’t just march in on the first day of school, register their kindergarten student, and leave him or her in school the same day.
School starts next month at Kapa’a Elementary, and in late August at other public elementary schools on the island.
That slow registration makes it difficult for principals to map out classroom and teaching assignments, and inhibits their ability to hire new teachers, said Lake and Hamada.
Most of those already registered for kindergarten are those children coming from various preschools across the island, so the focus is on reaching those parents of five-year-olds whose kindergarten-aged child or children did not attend preschool, Lake explained.
And more and more Kaua’i parents aren’t able to afford private preschools for their young children, she continued.
“A lot of our kids do not go to preschool,” Hamada agreed.
Parents of five-year-old children can contact the public elementary school nearest their home to be connected with one of the various retired teachers who work with the Happy Start program.
“I know this (program) works,” said Hamada, based on the positive feedback he gets from teachers, principals and others at the schools.
Under the Happy Start program, parents and children are interviewed, with assessments conducted involving communications, gross motor, fine motor, adaptive and social-personal skills.
Simple activity sheets, a book, crayons and scissors are given to the families, with instructions to the parents on how to read to and work with their young students-to-be. The program works with parents, teaching them how to work with their young children for kindergarten readiness and success.
Stressed is the fact that parents are the children’s first and most important teachers.
For more information, please call Lake, 245-2764.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
