OUR SCHOOLS • PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Volunteers support diverse student body
By James Gonser
Advertiser Staff Writer
In just his first year at President Abraham Lincoln School, principal Irving Emoto says he has learned that the amount of family and community involvement makes a big difference.
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser
Parents, college students and senior citizens volunteer as tutors. Businesses often help with donations. And the elementary school's big annual May Day and Ohana Country Fair events draw overflow crowds.
Fourth-graders Amy Syxomphou, left, and Cindy Le, middle, both 9, work on assignments at President Abraham Lincoln School in Honolulu.
"A really good school will involve community and parent participation to work together to benefit the students," said Emoto. "My goal is to seek additional resources, not only from parents but developing more school/business partnerships. I think we can work on that."
Emoto said Verizon Hawai'i donated back-to-school supplies this year and Pizza Hut and Domino's Pizza regularly provide awards and gift certificates for students.
Lincoln's student population is economically and culturally diverse, with Hawaiians and part-Hawaiians making up 34 percent of the student body. Many students are immigrants from Micronesia and South Korea. The community is a mix of single-family homes, apartments and condominiums.
The school sits on the slopes of Punchbowl Crater and shares its playground area with neighboring Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School and a city park.
Kristi Maruno, who coordinates the reading tutor program, said she has 14 volunteers this year, but with students on a waiting list, could always use more.
"One of the biggest benefits of tutoring is in terms of the child's self esteem," Maruno said. "They know there is someone special to care for me, that takes an interest in me and that wants to help me."
Technology is also a critical part of the education plan at Lincoln, Emoto said.
The school opened its first computer lab in 1982 and today its Learning Center has 23 networked computers for class use and all nine buildings and 35 classrooms are networked into the computer system.
Lois Ota, the school's tech coordinator, said students begin learning computer skills in kindergarten. The challenge for the school is to keep upgrading the technology.
"We start them out getting used to the mouse and simple programs," Ota said. "The students catch on very, very quickly. There is an increasing number of students that have a computer at home, but Internet access is limited still."
• What are you most proud of? The faculty and staff, Emoto said. "They are a group of dedicated, hard-working people. They truly care about the students."
• Everybody at our school knows: Librarian Karen Muronaga.
• Our biggest challenge: "To continue to provide quality education, especially (for) the students that are recent arrivals to Hawai'i and students with special needs."
• What we need: More parking. "When we have big events we can't provide parking for parents, so they have to find parking outside," Emoto said.
• Projects: The school's one-on-one tutoring program using volunteers from the University of Hawai'i, parents and "tutu tutors" has been helping students learn to read for more than a decade. The volunteers visit the school on Mondays and Thursdays. The school also has a special tutoring program for Micronesian students.
• Special events: Annual May Day festival and the Ohana Country Fair in March featuring food, games and entertainment.
To get your school profiled, contact education editor Dan Woods at 525-5441 or dwoods@honoluluadvertiser.com.
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| At a glance
• Where: 615 Auwaiolimu St., Honolulu • Phone: 587-4480 • Web address: www.k12.hi.us/~lincoln • Principal: Irving Emoto, in his first year, was previously a vice principal a Ka'ahumanu Elementary and Kaiser High. • School Mascot: Kolea (golden plover) • School colors: Black and white • Enrollment: 464 students, with capacity for more than 500 • SATs: Here's how Lincoln students fared on the most recent Stanford Achievement Test. Listed is the combined percentage of students scoring average and above average, compared with the national combined average of 77 percent. Third grade: reading, 84 percent; math, 86 percent. Fifth grade: reading, 80 percent; math, 81 percent. • History: Lincoln School was originally located near Thomas Square and moved to its present location in 1956. The old school was in the Linekona building on Victoria Street, which is now used by the Honolulu Academy of Arts. • Special Features: Lincoln takes part in the Center for Asia-Pacific Exchange, which brings Korean middle school teachers to the school every January. The educators observe teaching practices as well as share something about themselves and their culture. • Special programs or classes: The campus offers a Kamehameha preschool, special-education resource rooms and A-Plus after-school daycare. • Computers: Lincoln opened its first computer lab in 1982. Since 1995 and with the help of a GOALS 2000 grant, the school upgraded to PowerMacs in its Learning Center and was able to network half of the school. Today, the school is fully networked with data, voice and video. There is one PowerMac as well as a Norstar telset that allows for transferring phone calls and intercom access in each classroom and maximizes the use of the school's 12 phone numbers. |
