Namahana School Submits Application to State Charter School Commission

KILAUEA — Namahana School, planned as a free public charter middle and high school to serve students from Anahola’s North Shore in Ha’ena, applied in early February to the State Public Charter School Commission.

It is one of four proposed new charter schools whose applications have been accepted by the commission for processing. The number – if any – of applications that will be approved is unknown.

If Namahana gets preliminary approval from the commission in June, organizers said it could open as early as the 2025-26 school year. The school would occupy a yet-to-be-built eight-acre campus in Kilauea and eventually accommodate 360 ​​students.

As currently planned, Namahana will open in phases, organizers said, beginning with grades seven and eight, adding grades as students progress through their schooling. Temporary buildings would be used until construction is complete.

A fundraising campaign will be organized to raise several million dollars for the construction. Realizing that few Kaua’i families have the financial means to make large donations, the campaign plans to approach wealthy individuals who own property here, live in Kaua’i part-time or have other ties to the Isle.

Organizers contracted Big Picture Learning, a Rhode Island-based international education consulting firm, to develop a program, as well as Honolulu-based architectural design firm G70, to develop a campus at the site of school. The owner of the land, Joan Porter, offered a 99-year lease for the school property at $1 per year.

Community support for the school is apparently widespread. More than 20 letters of support from North Shore organizations and individuals, including Mayor Derek Kawakami, principals of Hanalei and Kilauea Elementary Schools and the chancellor of Kaua’i Community College, accompanied the application.

In her letter of support, Kawakami said “student-centered learning that incorporates the values ​​and culture of our community is imperative to the success of our youth and the future of our island.”

But none of these details necessarily guarantee that the school will get the board’s approval. In a statement, the commission confirmed that Namahana is one of four statewide nominees who have entered the formal nomination process. Failed charter school projects litter Hawaii’s educational landscape.

The proposed school is the only applicant on Kaua’i.

“The commission will not comment on the nominees” as all are pending, Sheryl Turberville, the agency’s communications director, said in an emailed statement.

Namahana has been trying to apply for more than two years, but an order prohibiting “non-essential” government services during the COVID-19 pandemic, signed by Governor David Ige in 2020, halted the process. The commission did not reopen the round until Dec. 16, 2021, Turberville said.

The Namahana Education Foundation, a newly created, federally designated non-profit organization, will raise funds for Namahana’s ongoing operations. So far, planning and fundraising for the school has been organized by the Princeville-based Kaua’i North Shore Community Foundation.

“We will start with 60 students per class with grades seven and eight and work our way up from there,” eventually reaching a total enrollment of 360, said school principal designate Dr. Kapua Chandler.

Chandler, who was born and raised on the North Shore before earning a doctorate in educational organization from the University of California, Los Angeles, said months of community outreach left no doubt in her mind that the eventual enrollment goal could be achieved.

“I was a math major,” Chandler joked in an online interview with two other school organizers. “We did a lot of data mining,” she said, and estimated that 80 kids graduate from Kilauea and Hanalei schools each year, a total that doesn’t include those who attend private schools like Island. School in Puhi, off-island boarding schools. and children who are home schooled. As a child, Chandler was a gifted student whose parents sent her to Kamehameha School in O’ahu because no school in Kaua’i could meet her needs.

Currently, North Shore children attend Kapa’a Middle School and Kapa’a High School, often involving school bus or car travel times of up to over an hour in each direction. Island School is even further away. The limitations mean that many students may arrive late or leave so early that they cannot participate in sports or other extracurricular activities.

She said North Shore families have been talking about the need for an alternative school on the North Shore since before her earliest childhood memories. She is 31 years old.

She said the project has so far received pledges from donors for $2.9 million, including $2.3 million in “seed funding”. The actual money received so far, she said, is around $700,000. The construction alone will represent several million dollars. The goal of the campaign will be announced once the school’s plans are finalized. But with construction costs so high in Hawai’i, it will certainly be several million dollars.

Chandler said 60 students in each grade level is likely an undercount of what actual enrollment would be. “We are by no means naive,” she said. Instead of encountering lower-than-projected enrollment, she said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if the opposite happened, pushing us into a lottery situation” for incoming students in future years, she said. .

Lori Mull, a retired lawyer and Princeville resident who chairs the North Shore Community Foundation’s education committee, said she’s been trying to start such a school for more than 30 years.

“I’ve been working on this longer than Kapua has been alive,” she said. “It’s something we’ve needed for decades.”

“The feedback we’ve received from the community has been very encouraging,” she said. “The fact that we’re fighting for fences (in terms of listing potential) is popular. There are really high expectations. »

About two years ago, Melanie Parker, another of the organizers who chairs Namahana’s board, said she hoped the school could open in time for her daughter, who is now 11 and currently in sixth grade, can attend.

“I can dream,” Parker said.

She said the project still has several hurdles to overcome. First, because the school site is on land currently zoned for agriculture, the project must receive a special use permit from Kaua’i County. To address the county’s concerns, Namahana will offer a program that is partially focused on agriculture. After that, approval by the State Charter School Commission is far from guaranteed, and the application process is notoriously difficult to negotiate.

She said she is confident that enough money can be raised for the project to succeed. “It’s putting a lot on the foundation” to assume that so much money can be raised in a relatively short period of time, she said.

At this time, Chandler said, inquiries about the school and possible donations should be directed to the Kaua’i North Shore Community Foundation.

Chandler said few charter school projects have the support of established nonprofits. The community foundation, she says, “is the parent company. The Namahana Education Foundation is the keiki.

w Info: [email protected] or visit knscf.org/s

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Allan Parachini is a retired Oregon resident, furniture maker, journalist, and public relations executive who writes periodically for The Garden Island.