OUR SCHOOLS • AUGUST AHRENS ELEMENTARY
School meets challenges with creativity

By Catherine E. Toth
Advertiser Staff Writer

WAIPAHU — With 1,260 students, August Ahrens Elementary School is more than twice as large as many Hawai'i elementary schools. But that's still a big improvement over the 1,700 the school had eight years ago when Florentina Smith took over as principal.

August Ahrens Elementary School third-graders knew the answer to teacher Patricia Cullen’s question about temperature measurements. The Waipahu school is the state’s largest elementary school with 1,260 students. Eight years ago enrollment peaked at about 1,700. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

Despite the noticeable decline in enrollment, the school still faces crowding issues.

The school has 27 portable classrooms — the most in the state — to house the seven to nine classes per grade level. Most of the portables don't have air-conditioning or Internet access capability. And they take up the majority of the campus, leaving only two small playgrounds and an open field for the kids to play on.

But the school manages.

There aren't enough computers for all the students, but the school did convert a classroom into a computer lab and set up terminals in the library.

To ensure a smaller student-to-teacher ratio, the school employs more than 80 teachers, 70 of whom are full-time. Monthly staff meetings are held in the library — standing-room only. Each classroom has a phone with an intercom, and teachers are all on e-mail, making communication easier.

And the school will finally get a new building, a two-story, eight-classroom facility that is scheduled to be completed next year.

"What makes us unique is our size," Smith said. "I give the staff a lot of credit. We have to be very organized."

Third-grader Samuel Andaya leads the way from portable classroom to cafeteria for lunch. The school has three cafeterias. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

Mandatory uniforms of blue or yellow T-shirts and dark bottoms were implemented this year, relieving parents of the added cost of buying school clothing.

Uniforms had been optional for the past four years. Packages, which include tops and bottoms, cost about $30 per child.

New reading and writing programs were introduced last year as a way to boost SAT scores. Already the school has seen improvements in reading. At the beginning of last year, 58 percent of first-graders were reading at or above their grade level. At the beginning of this year, that percentage soared to 90, according to a report provided by the school. Every grade level has seen an increase in the number of students reading at or above his or her grade level.

And forget about parking. There aren't enough stalls for the staff, forcing the school to enforce a drop-off-only policy for parents who drive their kids to school.

But despite the challenges its size alone presents, August Ahrens is a growing, nurturing, well-functioning learning environment, Smith said.

"We're in it, so we have to adjust," she said. "We have our bad days, but we have good days, too."

• What are you most proud of? "The kids are great, the parents are supportive and the teachers are dedicated," Smith said. And the school has very little vandalism, a credit to the community, Smith added. "The kids take pride in their school."

• Best-kept secret: The school has three cafeterias. And the kitchen staff has to make enough food to serve the students at nearby Kaleiopu'u Elementary School in Village Park, which does not have its own cafeteria.

• Everybody at our school knows: The STAR program, which asks students to "stop, think, act, review" their actions. Every month the kids are given a theme to live by, ranging from being on time to respecting property.

• Our biggest challenge: "Making the dollar stretch," Smith said. "When they say teachers spend a lot of their own money, it's so true here."

• What we need: The school is desperate for more and better technology in the form of computers and closed-circuit capability.

• Projects: The state is building a $3 million, eight-classroom, two-story building on campus, to be completed in a year.

• Special events: On Sept. 11, the school's student council will tie more than a thousand red, white and blue ribbons on the fence by the open field as a way to commemorate the anniversary of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.