Our Schools • Barbers Point Elementary
Kalaeloa school expecting enrollment surge

By James Gonser
Advertiser Leeward Bureau

KALAELOA — The biggest challenge facing Barbers Point Elementary School today is adapting to the changing community around it.

Ashley Gordon, 9; Gavin Kaneshiro, 10; and Jordan Patterson, 10, were among the students attending a recent art fair at the Kalaeloa school. Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

It has a spacious campus and a highly regarded reputation, but enrollment has dropped significantly since 1999. With the upcoming redistricting of students from Makakilo, that is about to change.

While other parts of the nearby "second city" of Kapolei continue to grow, Barbers Point Elementary has been drained of students as many Navy families have moved away. The school, which has a capacity of 790 students, now has an enrollment of only 219.

With crowded conditions at both Mauka Lani and Makakilo elementary schools, the state Department of Education has decided to implement a redistricting plan that will take students from those schools and bus them to Barbers Point.

Up to 85 students who now attend the Mauka Lani school will be bused about six miles to Barbers Point beginning with the next school year, which starts July 25. Next year, a group of students who attend Makakilo Elementary and live in Honokai Hale will be sent to Barbers Point.

Barbers Point principal Claudia Nakachi has been holding a series of orientation sessions for parents and students expected to enter the school next semester.

Keri Magaoay visited the school last week with her daughter during a schoolwide art show to get to know the campus and teachers. Magaoay lives in an area of Makakilo redistricted to Barbers Point.

"I like the set-up here better," Magaoay said. "We've checked out several other schools before the move, and we are willing to try this one for a year."

The Barbers Point campus consists of nine buildings linked by a covered lanai. There are seven wings of classrooms, an administration/library building and a cafeteria.

Murals with space themes and Sesame Street characters created by students, artists and teachers line the walkways. Each row of classrooms has its own name, including Cookie Monster Lane, Miss Piggy Lane and Bert Boulevard.

More teachers have been hired and more rooms will be air-conditioned soon, Nakachi said.

• What are you most proud of? "I guess its the commitment of the teachers and the staff toward students' learning," Nakachi said. "Barbers Point has the distinction of being the first public elementary school accredited by the Western Association of Schools & Colleges. That shows a lot of dedication on the part of the staff."

• Best-kept secret: "We have no secrets," Nakachi said.

• Everybody at our school knows: "Our friendly clerk typist Katherine White," the first person to greet everyone at the school.

• Our biggest challenge: Adjusting to the changing demographics and the growing population of Kapolei.

• What we need: Air-conditioning.

• Projects: A fence is about to go up around the entire school. The state just completed installing a new electrical wiring system on campus to allow the school faster Internet connections, better internal communication and the capacity for more air-conditioning.

	At a glance
•	Where: 3001 Boxer Road, Kalaeloa
•	Phone: 673-7400
•	Web address: www.k12.hi.us/~barbers/BPES4/BPES.html
•	Principal: Claudia Nakachi, since November 1997
•	School nickname: Jets
•	School colors: Red, white and blue
•	Enrollment: Built for 790 students, the school has an enrollment of 219 this year.
•	SATs: Here's how Barbers Point 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: 86 percent; math: 83 percent. Fifth grade, reading: 80 percent; math: 84 percent.
•	History: Barbers Point Elementary will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2004.
•	Special features: Inside the spacious school grounds are a Hawaiian garden, an art gallery and two playgrounds complete with a baseball field, a basketball court and an assortment of playground equipment.
•	Special programs or classes: The NASA Challenger Space Center. The $1 million facility opened in 1993 and includes two rooms that have been converted into a Mission Control and a Space Station. The program was conceived by the families of astronauts killed in the explosion of the Challenger shuttle in 1986, including Ellison Onizuka, Hawai'i's first astronaut. Using elaborate re-creations of life in space, students are linked by computer and voice circuits and work through problems, experiments and research that could take place in space.
•	Computers: A new computer lab will open next year. Computers are also in every classroom.