Pauahi would be pleased
By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist
The two kupuna sitting near the back of the community meeting summed it up this way:
"For once, we have a voice, yeah?"
"No," corrected the second woman. "We always had a voice. For once we're being heard."
Kamehameha Schools is holding a series of community meetings across the state to talk about its plans. At the first meeting up at the Kapalama campus, Kamehameha Schools CEO Hamilton McCubbin talked plainly about the way things were in contrast to the way the new board of trustees wants them to be.
"It wasn't too long ago we got a request for five Steinway pianos," McCubbin said. "We should have framed that request. You don't need a Steinway to learn to play the piano. If you calculate those figures, that's a lot of kids we can educate."
McCubbin and Office of Strategic Planning Director Charlene Hoe outlined the primary goal of the refocused Kamehameha Schools: to reach one-third of all eligible Native Hawaiian children in five years. Right now, with an enrollment of 3,700 on the Kapalama campus plus 1,100 in early education programs around the state, that number is closer to 6 percent, a figure deemed unacceptable by trustees and a criticism of the school long held by the Hawaiian community.
In 15 years, the goal is to reach all eligible Native Hawaiian children. Hoe calls this a "stretch goal" — something that is as daunting as it is exciting.
Instead of building new campuses, this outreach will be accomplished through partnerships with community groups, agencies and the state Department of Education.
"The perception is that this plan will pull money off the hill, and that's partly true,"said McCubbin. He explained that the school has long operated on an inflated budget with variances of up to $20 million a year.
"Every year, there's this money allocated that never gets spent. We want to make sure that every dollar is being spent on education and not sitting on the shelf.
"It wasn't the goal of Ke Ali'i Pauahi's will to establish the best, most luxurious facility to educate a few."
The strategy calls for reaching out to eligible children as early as possible — from birth, even. Resources will also be allocated for special-needs children, something the school has never done before.
Though the admissions preference remains, the partnerships with the public schools means Kamehameha Schools resources will soon extend to non-Hawaiian students as well.
At the close of the meeting, the kupuna gathered up their purses and put away the notes they had been taking on the informational handouts.
"I feel so good," one woman said to the other. "This is what Pauahi intended."
Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.
