The Department of Education has decided to close Kaaawa School and is forming a task force to decide where students will go in the future, despite the small school’s record of academic achievement.
The department’s position was announced by Windward school superintendent Lea Albert at a meeting of the Kaaawa School Community Council last week.
Albert provided a copy of a December 10 letter from DOE superintendent Pat Hamamoto leaving no doubt as to the department’s position:
The Department of Education has concluded that the continued operation of Kaaawa Elementary School is not in the best interest of the school’s students and staff or of the public at large.
The letter cited the poor condition of some of the school’s temporary or portable buildings, its location in tsunami and flood zones, and the difficulty of complying with an EPA order to close down its large capacity cesspool.
The letter suprised community members who expected at least some public discussion before any final decision about closing the school was made.
Walsh comments:
This is especially frustrating to the staff of the school who have worked hard to make our school one of only 2 in our complex that has never been under sanction for not meeting NCLB AYP standards and our school is the most highly utilized in our complex (158 students, with the capacity for 161). Both of our neighboring schools (Waiahole and Hauula) have been in restructuring and both have excess capacity over enrollment of more than 150. All three schools have served their communities for more than 100 years. The school’s high level of academic performance and its local accessibility have been factors in many parents’ choice to send their children to this school.
“It is hard to imagine Ka’a’awa without it’s school, but it looks like the DOE has a pretty strong opinion about closing it, and backs it up with numerous reasons,” said John Morgan, whose family originally donated use of the land for a school in the community. If no longer used as the site of a school, the 3.7 acre site will revert to Kualoa Ranch, Inc., Morgan said, although some legal questions remain.
The Kaaawa Community Association is trying to schedule a January meeting at which the DOE will discus its decision and the next steps in planning.
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” although some legal questions remain.”
may we know what these may be?
So the DOE is going to relinquish its use of 3.7 acres? That would seem to be no small resource for community wellness. Seeing how the DOE is paid for by taxpayers, I wonder if the community actually feels powerless to join in the decision-making process.
My understanding is that the DOE is recommending that Ka’a’awa be closed but there will be a community process and ultimately the Board will make a decision. So it is far from being a done deal at this point.
According to Hamamoto’s letter and the information given out at the meeting, the only public process built into the DOE scheme is to recommend where the students will be moved to. The task force parameters do not include examining the underlying question of whether the school should be closed. That decision has been made by the department.
Interesting that the “tsunami” justifications are enumerated given one of the alternative locations is Hau’ula. I guess it should come as no surprise that meaningful performance measures and non-quantifiable variables (i.e. locus of the community) do not carry as much weight as costs when budgets have to be cut.