School seeks order to keep doors open

By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — A Big Island charter school that the state attorney general is seeking to close has asked a 3rd Circuit judge to grant a temporary restraining order that would halt the shut-down.

Waters of Life, a charter school first located in Puna and now operating from the Hawai'i Naniloa Hotel, is represented by counsel Ted Hong, formerly acting Hawai'i Corporation Counsel.

A hearing on his request for a temporary restraining order is scheduled for 1 p.m. today before Judge Riki May Amano.

The school has 12 teachers and 75 students — 12 of them classified as special education students. Hong and the school say that without a restraining order, the faculty may become more divided and the student body unmanageable.

Nine of the 12 special education students fall under the federal Felix consent degree in Honolulu, Hong said in his written argument.

Waters of Life claims the Oct. 17 suit by the state already has cost the school one faculty member. More may leave if the state carries out its threat to stop paying salaries, Hong's complaint said.

"Because of the state's intimidating tactics," Hong wrote, "Waters of Life stands to lose many more teachers."

Hong and Waters of Life School director Truitt White seek a full hearing on the issues, with salaries paid in the interim and students undisturbed, Hong said yesterday.

In seeking the school's closure, the state cited various infractions of state health and safety codes.

The state suit also claimed the school exceeded its budget by $171,020, while Hong said his clients had a written statement last spring noting they had underspent their budget by $100,000.

"It's a curious case," Hong said.