OUR SCHOOLS • LOKELANI INTERMEDIATE
Kihei campus emphasizes teamwork

By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Neighbor Island Editor

KIHEI, Maui — When Principal Marion Muller first came to Lokelani Intermediate School 11 years ago, not too long after the campus opened, the place lacked a sense of community, she said.

Lokelani Intermediate sixth-graders Eric Farley, standing, and Candace Angel test the strength of their team's toothpick bridge as part an interdisciplinary lesson using math, science, language arts and social studies. Christie Wilson • The Honolulu Advertiser

In response, Muller helped establish programs at Lokelani — named for the tiny pink rose that is the island's flower — that emphasize teamwork and nurture a close-knit atmosphere on campus and in the community. Yet, she still struggles with conditions beyond her control.

During a typical year, the school gains 100 students while losing an equal number as families come and go on the island. Teacher turnover also is high, about 20 percent to 35 percent a year, she said. Many of the families and teachers who leave decide to return to the Mainland after discovering that living in Hawai'i isn't what they expected.

But a relatively young campus with fresh, new faces on staff is not necessarily a bad thing.

"Our faculty is younger and upbeat. There's a lot of energy," said sixth-grade social studies teacher Pattie Kealoha, who started her career at Lokelani three years ago. "We have teachers who want to be teachers, and when you have teachers who are upbeat, it makes the students want to learn."

• What are you most proud of? The team concept of instruction.

Kealoha said the school's concept of team teaching, with interdisciplinary study units, provides support and mentoring for new teachers. There are two teams per grade level, each comprising teachers in the core subjects of math, science, social studies and language arts, as well as special education and electives. The teachers in each team share the same students and follow uniform codes of conduct and performance.

The teams meet once a day for planning and to alert group members about whether a particular student may be having a bad day or is dealing with problems at home, for example. "The teachers really get to know their kids," Muller said.

The teams also develop interdisciplinary study units that incorporate core subjects. For a just-concluded unit on bridges, sixth-graders used math and science to design bridges, managed a budget for supplies, design and construction, learned how to work together in different roles, such as architect and project manager, read literature involving bridges, and studied well-known bridges around the globe.

The unit culminated this week with a contest to test the strength of toothpick spans built by students.

An eighth-grade unit on boats planned for later in the year will end with a seaworthiness test at the neighboring Kihei Aquatic Center.

• Projects: Lokelani's Renaissance Program, a variation on traditional honor rolls, emphasizes community service as well as academic achievement, and the Advisory Program sets aside 25 minutes each Monday for activities meant to forge bonds between students and staff. "We want every student on this campus to be able to relate to at least one adult so that they can feel safe and can talk to that person about anything," Muller said.

Muller is particularly pleased with the "We Don't Do That Here" banner program, which posts the number of days without a serious disciplinary infraction by students, similar to the workplace accident signs found at factories. "It really has helped with discipline. The kids are aware of it and they are aware of what their behavior should be," she said.

Students just launched a Partners in the Pacific fund drive for Guam typhoon victims, following in the footsteps of their Pennies for Peace effort in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 tragedies. The donations will be sent to a middle school on the storm-battered island.

Over the years, Lokelani Intermediate also has forged bonds with area Rotary Clubs and the Kihei Community Association. The school participates in the annual Spring for Education festival and fund-raiser that benefits Kihei's public schools.

• Everybody at our school knows: Paulette Miller, head of security. "She knows all the students by name and she's all over the campus," Muller said.

• Our biggest challenge: High teacher turnover.

• What we need: A six-classroom building and additional staffing.

• Special events: Family star-gazing night on campus; community performances by school band, hula troupe and 'ukulele band.