Our Schools: Hale'iwa Elementary
Waialua Complex reaches into community
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By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Staff Writer
At 131 years old, Hale'iwa Elementary cherishes its past but has a clear focus on where it's going. The focus is on benefiting the entire community.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
This year the school and its two sister members at the Waialua Complex are proposing to create three learning centers that will be accessible to neighboring residents — one at each school, said Janice Yoneda, Hale'iwa principal.
Rebecca Barone talks to her teacher at Hale'iwa Elementary School, Mrs. Kawachi, about the day's reading passage, "The White Heron." Students have doubled their reading scores in the past two years.
The plan is to have centers for science and technology, culture and fine arts, and health and nutrition.
"That is our long-term vision for our schools: to utilize the resources in our community to bring extended learning opportunities for all," Yoneda said.
Elders and local artists, for instance, could offer classes and programs to all ages before and after school and in the evenings. People would learn about such things as robotics and astronomy, receive health consultations and services, and participate in an orchestra, she said.
The dream will build upon other successes at Hale'iwa. These include its Direct Instruction in Reading program, growing parent participation, a military partnership and community participation in education.
The school's new reading program has resulted in students' doubling their reading scores in the past two years, Yoneda said.
At the same time, the number of remedial groups has been dwindling.
"We've systematically reduced our remedial groups from 13 when we started two years ago," she said. "Now we have only one."
• What are you most proud of? The ability of the staff to communicate and collaborate daily to meet the needs of students.
• Everybody at our school knows: The principal, who, in turn, knows every child's name.
• Our biggest challenge: To keep the school open despite diminishing enrollment from 500 six years ago to 323.
• What we need: The school needs an administrative assistant and a grant writer. When the principal leaves the campus, she must pull a teacher out of the classroom to take charge. Every school must supplement its budget with grants, which are available to schools that can apply for them.
• Projects: The school has a partnership with Hale'iwa-Waialua Association, which is building a halau wa'a, or canoe house, at the school with donated labor and materials and a $150,000 grant from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. Next the association will build a canoe there.
"The canoe will be used as a floating class for intergenerational learning," Yoneda said.
The school also has a partnership with military tutors from the Pearl Harbor Naval Dental Clinic and Schofield's 25th Infantry Division.
Specially selected and trained tutors work with students three times a year for the Saturday Scholar Program, which runs four Saturdays in a row. The tutors help with reading and homework, and they discuss their careers with students.
• Special events: In June the halau wa'a will be dedicated.
• • •
Hale'iwa Elementary at a glance
• Where: 66-505 Hale'iwa Road.
• Phone: 637-8237.
• Web address: In progress.
• Principal: Janice Yoneda, since 1995.
• School nickname: House of the 'Iwa Bird.
• School colors: Purple and yellow.
• Enrollment: 323 students, compared to 500 six years ago.
• SATs: Here's how Hale'iwa Elementary students fared on the most recent Stanford Achievement Test. Listed is the combined percentage of students scoring average and above average, compared with the national combined average of 77 percent. Third grade — reading, 85 percent; math, 74 percent. Fifth grade — reading, 53 percent; math, 72 percent.
• History: The school opened in 1870 as a private school for girls, offering educational opportunities at a time when only boys were sent to school.The institution became coed while Hawai'i was still a U.S. territory.
• Special features: Canoe halau on campus.
• Special programs or classes: Direct Instruction in Reading.
• Computers: The school has 42 computers and is upgrading its system this year. By 2002 it expects to be fully equipped and functioning with a network system and Internet access. With 20 classrooms in use, the school should have at least three stations in each room.
To get your school profiled, contact education editor Dan Woods by phone at 525-5441 or by e-mail, dwoods@honoluluadvertiser.com
