When it’s time for “back-to-school,” librarian Gloria Aki knows she must ready the computer lab for students that’s housed in the tech center of the school. Wednesday afternoon she was readying the stacks for the influx of students — about
When it’s time for “back-to-school,” librarian Gloria Aki knows she must ready the computer lab for students that’s housed in the tech center of the school.
Wednesday afternoon she was readying the stacks for the influx of students — about 334 in all — who burst onto the small campus for their first day of instruction Thursday.
The school has two mobile computer labs with 20 laptops each, that travels from class to class throughout the year.
Aki, in addition to being the librarian and the woman in charge of the books, is also a tech coordinator.
Kilauea School also has a computer class and multimedia labs for online library research, Internet classes and computer classes so students can learn digital photography, video production, computer presentations and graphics.
The school’s computers were mainly acquired through grants, and the PTSA also assists.
Kilauea School was founded in 1882.
It’s main building remains basically unchanged from its original design — eight classrooms and an office in a wide “U” shape around a courtyard with a central flagpole.
The school opened at its current location in 1922 on 6.5 acres of land purchased from the Kilauea Sugar Company.
An additional 2 acres were deeded to the State of Hawai‘i in 1996 for the school. The main building was placed on the Hawaii State Historical Register in 1985 and remains unchanged from the original design.
The Kilauea School “mission statement” was developed in the 1998–99 school year: to provide relevant learning experiences for all students so they will become productive citizens in a democratic society.
School librarian Gloria Aki, third grade teacher Linda Paik, second grade teacher Michelle Gibson and first-year teacher Sarrah (Chapin) Krovoza are all former Kilauea School students.
“In a small school we work together and it’s a close-knit community we can help each other and the new teachers,” Aki said.
Aki said the younger students love to read the cute and comical “Dumb Bunnies” series and in upper grades, “Harry Potter” books are popular.
The school has seven portable classrooms and a four-room classroom building that were built to accommodate the growing enrollment. This year, enrollment is at 334 students, about 10 more than last school year.
Most Kilauea students live nearby, so they walk or bike to school or their parents drop them off. Some students come as far as Anahola and Wailua because their parents work in Kilauea, Princeville and Hanalei.
This April, Kilauea School, home to one of the smallest cafeterias on the island, finally got its wish for an expansion by way of $2.1 million in state funding.
Still, the amount will likely be just enough to build a new dining room, not a new kitchen or auditorium as parents, students, teachers and others have been hoping for. Still, they make do, as they do with the quaint little library that houses the stories that Kilauea students love to read.
The collection consists of about 6,000 books and four sets of encyclopedia. It was recently remodeled with new shelves for new books. Books that are outdated or stamped “Territory of Hawai‘i” are having to be “weeded out” by given to students or donated. The 20- by 30-foot library was once a teacher’s cottage and also used for home economics classes.
