Kamehameha Schools alters procedures
Associated Press
Kamehameha Schools has adopted interim changes to admissions procedures at its Maui and Big Island campuses in an effort to improve recruitment of Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian students, the schools' chief executive said.
Advertiser library photo • July 18, 2002
"The changes are designed to improve student recruitment and to better align the Maui and Hawai'i campuses with the communities they serve," Chief Executive Officer Hamilton McCubbin said Saturday.
CEO Hamilton McCubbin said the changes will better align Neighbor Island campuses with their communities.
The changes will be in place for only one year and will not apply to the Kapalama campus on O'ahu.
The school's board of trustees already has planned a series of community meetings to solicit further input on how the schools can better serve the Hawaiian community.
The review of the school's admission policy comes after intense criticism of last month's decision by the board of trustees to admit a non-Hawaiian student to Kamehameha's Maui campus.
The interim changes announced Saturday include:
- A one-time waiver of the $25 application fee. It is expected that waiving the fee for one year will encourage more applications.
- No applicants being screened out after a preliminary evaluation. The process is used at the Kapalama campus to help manage the large number of applications received, but because there are fewer applicants to grades 1 to 10 at the Maui and Big Isle campuses, the preliminary evaluation screening will be waived.
- Suspending the use of a minimum scoring threshold. A minimum cutoff score will not be used to eliminate any applicants to the Maui and Big Isle campuses in grades 1 to 10.
- Allowing applicants from West Hawai'i to apply to either the Big Island campus or Kapalama. Previously, students from West Hawai'i and remote communities on Maui were eligible to apply only to the Kapalama campus, which has boarding facilities.
