A task force appointed by the Department of Education has recommended that a proposal to close Kaaawa Elementary School be rejected by the Board of Education.

A public hearing to consider the task force report will be held next Wednesday evening, June 2. The DOE’s official notice of the meeting was publicly posted on May 20.

Parents, concerned members of the community, and others concerned about the important role of small schools in rural communities are encouraged to attend.

The final report of the task force is now available online.

The following meeting notice is courtesy of school volunteer Brian Walsh, and includes additional information for those wanting to support the school and oppose the possibility of closing it.

KA’A’AWA SCHOOL CLOSURE TASK FORCE PUBLIC HEARING

Task Force Report will be discussed
Wednesday, June 2, 2010 Ka’a’awa School cafeteria, 6:30pm

Come and hear the Consolidation Task Force members explain their Report. Representatives of the DOE will be there to gather public input which will be included in their Report to the DOE Superintendent and to the BOE.

This is your opportunity to make your opinion known.

Click here for the complete flyer announcing the meeting.

In adition, Walsh prepared additional background for the media and others who are concerned about education.

Kaaawa Elementary is NOT in an area of declining population. The school is fully utilized and is NOT a failing school – it has an excellent academic record. It has been an important community asset for over 100 years.

Many of buildings are so-called “portable” and this is being used as the most recent reason for closing the school. The State completed in just the last few months a major upgrade of the sanitary system as required by federal law and is now in compliance. Neither Hau’ula Elementary or Waiahole Elementary can accommodate all of the students of Kaaawa school and that could lead to dividing our community down the middle, sending neighborhood children to different school complexes.

The closure of this small rural school is not equivalent to closing an urban school where the young students would travel less than a mile to a new school, both of the alternative schools are at least seven miles away and the vast majority of the Kaaawa students do not currently ride a bus to school.

In early 2009, the DOE created a Task Force (per Chapter 38, Hawaii Administrative Rules) to study the possible closure of Ka’a’awa Elementary School and sending the students to either Waiahole or Hau’ula Elementary. The Task Force has met 9 times over the last year and published their final draft report to the Complex Area Superintendent, Ms. Lea Albert, on April 30, 2010. (The Task Force Final Draft report can be found at the DOE website or here.

The Task Force is recommending that the school NOT be “consolidated” with either Waiahole or Hau’ula. We expect that it is likely that the DOE/BOE will decide to close the school despite the recommendations of the Report and the wishes of the community.

A disturbing article was published on the Big Island on May 25th about DOE tactics regarding the Consolidation process of Kohala Middle School.

You can read Kohala’s TF report online here.

Note that their Report was published last December, the public hearing was scheduled for Jan 21, 2010, but there is no listing of recommendations to or by the CAS or the Superintendent or even agenda or minutes of the TF post-“public hearing” meeting.

The Maunaloa TF public hearing was held on May 10, 2010. They unanimously agreed (noted in their meeting minutes) that the school should be kept open. Their Final modified TF report was to be sent to “Supt. Ball” on June 2, 2010. Minutes and report here.

The Waialua/Hale’iwa consolidation study is also proceeding rapidly under the newly approved “non-Task Force” revised version of Chapter 38, HAR.

It will be interesting to see how the new Interim Superintendent, Ms. Kathryn S. Matayoshi (Kathryn_Matayoshi@notes.k12.hi.us) intends to deal with these “consolidations”. She has been virtually invisible, but these consolidations are coming to a conclusion, driven by her “Facilities” Director, Assistant Superintendent Mr. Randy Moore.

Most of these consolidations are in Rural areas even though the worst cases of under-utilized schools are in the Urban core, where the graying of the population and the flight of the younger generation to the new suburbs leaves many half-empty schools within less than a half mile of each other.

Join the Facebook group (Save Ka’a’awa):

Here is a BOE and DOE directory:

Regards,
Brian Walsh
Ka’a’awa resident, school volunteer and SCC Chairperson