Programs for Ni'ihau kids coexist on Kaua'i
By Yasmin Anwar
Advertiser Staff Writer
KEKAHA, Kaua'i — Few would guess that this sleepy former sugar mill town, some two dozen miles east of the Forbidden Isle, is home to one of the most wrenching divorces in the Hawaiian language-immersion movement.
Jan Tenbruggencate • The Honolulu Advertiser
But the twisted feud over who should control Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Kekaha, a school created to help Ni'ihau children who were failing in the public schools, appears to be finally straightening itself out.
Ola Kanahele, left, and Tyler Kanahele attend school in a makeshift classroom in the Waimea Boys and Girls Club building.
Both sides in the Hawaiian language-immersion vs. bilingual education dispute have settled into a truce of sorts. And by the start of the new school year, there may even be both a Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Kekaha and a Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Waimea.
Roving school
Waimea High School has offered the transient Ni'ihau School of Kekaha, which split from Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Kekaha in 1999, a permanent spot on their grounds.
"We can't wait to get our own school," said Malaki Kanahele, former president of the Ni'ihau School of Kekaha association. For the past two years, his dissident group has been roaming from one makeshift classroom to another.
"We were like a pinball machine, slapping all over the place," said Kanahele, who has five children in the school that is temporarily housed in the Waimea Boys and Girls Club.
Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Kekaha was founded to help Ni'ihau children who were struggling with language problems in Kaua'i's public schools. But the Ni'ihau 'ohana split apart in 1999 over who should control their prized school at the old Kekaha armory.
One side pledged its allegiance to the Hilo-based 'Aha Punana Leo, which controlled the school and whose goal to perpetuate the Hawaiian language means that English is introduced in the fifth grade only as a second language.
The other side sought independence from the 'Aha Punana Leo, saying their Hawaiian-speaking children should also learn English from kindergarten on, believing the earlier start could help ensure they make it in the modern world.
Today, the group that supported the 'Aha Punana Leo is staying at the old armory. A mile or so away, two dozen of their former schoolmates are crammed in a loft above the gym at the Waimea Boys and Girls Club and getting a bilingual education.
"We speak haole and Hawaiian," bragged Kanahele's 10-year-old son, Hino, at the Waimea facility recently.
He said he barely remembers his old school in the Kekaha armory because his group moved so many times during their exile.
As for his former schoolmates, he shrugs and says, "We don't see them much anymore."
Both schools have teachers certified by the state Department of Education and both are applying for charter school status.
Each school claims about three dozen students, but the numbers change from day to day as some students shuffle back and forth between Ni'ihau and Kaua'i, and even between schools.
Preserving language
It was in 1993 that Kekaha's Ni'ihau 'ohana, all related by marriage or blood, started a homeschooling program for their academically struggling children. They pulled their children out of Kekaha Elementary and held classes in a park pavilion.
Then in 1997, they moved into the old Kekaha Armory, whose lease was held by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. There were high hopes for Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Kekaha, the 'Aha Punana Leo's most remote Hawaiian-language immersion outpost, financed by federal, state and OHA money.
But by 1999, some teachers and parents at the school had grown to resent the rule of the 'Aha Punana Leo, a movement that started in the 1980s to protect the Hawaiian language from extinction.
They heard that the organization planned to turn their institution into a lab school under the auspices of the University of Hawai'i at Hilo, and they voiced their concerns. They also objected to the 'Aha Punana Leo's tight control of the school's budget.
At an emotionally charged community meeting at the armory on May 13, 1999, members of the Ni'ihau school family were asked to sign a petition saying whether they wanted to stay with the 'Aha Punana Leo or become independent.
Those who opted for independence left. Some say they were ousted. Others say they chose to leave. The dissident group returned to the park pavilion where they started in 1993, with no money, no school supplies and no permanent roof over their head.
But they struggled along on donations and help from the state Department of Education.
Both groups fought over ownership of the name Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Kekaha. The 'Aha Punana Leo won the trade name and the dissident group settled for the name "Ni'ihau School of Kekaha." But that offended the 'Aha Punana Leo because it is the direct English translation of Ke Kula Ni'ihau O Kekaha.
The most rancorous fight was over who should get the lease for the armory.
Under one roof
After discussions with state education officials and representatives of both Ni'ihau school groups, OHA voted to hand the lease to the state Department of Education and bring both groups back to the armory, with the Hawaiian language-immersion and bilingual programs both operating under one roof.
But last October, OHA trustee Clayton Hee's interim board voted to reverse that decision and transfer the lease to the 'Aha Punana Leo.
Hee and then-interim OHA trustee Ilei Beniamina, a Ni'ihau native and former board member of the 'Aha Punana Leo, said they doubted both groups could coexist after all the rancor.
But they have, in their own quiet way.
On Wednesdays, both sides meet for family night at the Waimea Boys and Girls Club to watch basketball and volleyball games.
Lama Kaohelaulii, one of the two teachers who left Ke Kula Ni'ihau during the dispute, said they'd all prefer to leave the past behind, and proceed along their separate paths.
She says she has no regrets about her decision to break away.
"This is better for our children," she said.
