Vacation ending at Kapolei school
By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Staff Writer
While the Fourth of July is considered the middle of summer vacation for many public school students, it meant the last week of play for Kapolei Middle School sixth-grader Shantel Fontes.
The 11-year-old Fontes spent this week registering for school, which will be back in session Monday under a complex year-round multi-track schedule being instituted this school year to deal with student crowding at the Kapolei campus.
"It's all right," Fontes said about returning to school earlier than planned.
Kapolei middle and elementary schools starting next week will become the third and fourth public schools to operate under a multi-track system, in which students attend classes and take vacations at different times of the year to make full use of the campus year-round.
Two more schools are scheduled to go multi-track in the next three to four years, for a total of six, as Hawai'i makes increasing use of what once was a unique schedule to keep pace with a growing population without breaking the bank on new school construction.
All of the present and planned multi-track schools are in the fast-developing Central/Leeward O'ahu area, where at least six more schools are to be built as the Koa Ridge/Waiawa planned developments come on line. All will be designed for multi-track, as will all other new schools, said state Department of Education assistant superintendent Al Suga.
Mililani Middle and Holomua Elementary already are multi-track. Waikele Elementary will go multi-track in fall 2003, along with Kapolei High, which has yet to set a starting date for the schedule.
With an already tight construction budget, state education officials like multi-track because it keeps costs down by allowing the state to build smaller schools in fast-growing areas.
Hazel Sumile, the DOE's school/community-based management director dealing with school scheduling, said multi-track schedules are more costly than traditional ones to operate. But in the long run, they are much cheaper than building schools. It costs about $25 million to build an elementary school, $45 million for a middle school and at least $80 million for a high school, she said.
Kapolei Middle is operating on the multi-track schedule to accommodate 1,520 sixth- through eighth-grade students on a campus originally intended for 1,200. Kapolei Elementary is doing the same to take in 1,160 students, kindergarten through fifth grade, in facilities designed for 850.
Kapolei Middle principal Annette Nishikawa said the new school schedule will have students taking 15 days off after every 45 days of classes, eliminating the traditional summer vacation. Students and teachers also rotate classrooms in the process.
"It's sink-or-swim on Monday," Nishikawa said. "This being our first year, it will be a learning experience."
"The community has been aware for years about our overcrowding problem, so I think they've come to at least accept the multi-track idea," said Kapolei Elementary principal Mike Miyamura, who previously scheduled three lunch periods to deal with the school's large student body.
Under the plan, students are placed in four groups or "tracks," with three of the tracks attending classes at any time of the school year, while the other track is on break.
The concept has its opponents. Some parents are concerned that the staggered classes disrupt learning and family schedules and vacations. Others are unhappy that their children are placed on an unfavorable track that has their "summer" break in the fall.
Mililani Middle, the first Hawai'i school to go multi-track in 1998, took the brunt of public opposition to the schedule. A parent group at one point even sued the state Department of Education that year in an unsuccessful effort to keep the school from opening.
State Rep. Guy Ontai, R-39th (Wheeler, Mililani), opposes the multi-track system. He thinks the DOE is using multi-track as an excuse to build smaller campuses to save money.
"Mililani Middle and the second Mililani Mauka elementary school are two examples of schools that should have been built larger to match the population growth," Ontai said. "Instead, the schools end up being too small, no matter what schedule they use."
But Sumile said multi-track keeps the state from overbuilding. The population in communities eventually ages, and as children graduate and move away, public school enrollment drops, she said, noting just such situations in urban Honolulu and East O'ahu.
"You don't want to overbuild because that leaves you with unused school facilities later on," she said.
But while all of the state's multi-track schools so far have been designed specifically for multi-track, implementing a similar schedule at existing schools has met stiff opposition.
In 1997, Mililani High School teachers voted against multi-track to deal with student crowding. And parents at Mililani Mauka and Nanaikapono elementary schools recently shot down the multi-track proposal.
Students at Mililani Middle School had their personal likes and dislikes about multi-track.
David Browning, who just graduated from the eighth grade, said the schedule helped alleviate some of the crowding on campus. But classmate Kylie Leslie didn't like the multi-track schedule, saying it separates her from some friends placed in the other groups.
"I was on the 'blue' track, but all the cute guys were on the 'red' and 'yellow' tracks," Leslie said.
Reach Scott Ishikawa at sishikawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.
