OUR SCHOOLS • HOLY TRINITY SCHOOL
Social justice at core of curriculum

By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer

From the moment students arrive at Holy Trinity School to the moment they leave, each of them will have been greeted personally at least once by the principal.

Principal Monica Des Jarlais reviews booklets that show the progress of Holy Trinity School's sixth-graders. With only 150 students, the school is able to tailor programs to the individual needs of its students. The campus is on Kalaniana'ole Highway, near Niu Valley. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

"It sets the tone of the day," said Des Jarlais, principal for the past six years. "The students feel welcome here. The students feel we care."

With 150 students in kindergarten to eighth grade, the small private school has the luxury of tailoring programs to the individual needs of each student, Des Jarlais said. Benchmarks are set for each student and for each class, according to Des Jarlais, and those benchmarks are reviewed each quarter to see if they've been met.

"Our entire curriculum is integrated, from computers to art," Des Jarlais said.

The school has had its share of challenges, however. Because the school is behind a church and along a busy highway, many people are unaware that it's even there, despite its having been around for 44 years.

The years of road widening and resurfacing of Kalaniana'ole Highway in the 1990s didn't help enrollment numbers, either, Des Jarlais said.

What did help enrollment is an academic curriculum centered around social justice. This program was added to the school's curriculum almost three years ago, Des Jarlais said. Last year, the goal was to learn about the environment and the year before it was about hunger and homelessness. This year it's about human dignity, Des Jarlais said.

This month, one group of Holy Trinity students will go to the Institute for Human Services and do some cleaning, and another will return to serve up stew and rice for 300 people.

"We're trying to show the students how they can help the community," she said. "That's what drives us. We always have projects going on that are geared to doing something for others."

• What are you most proud of? "Definitely our social justice program and that our children are involved in the community. We really are making a difference. The social justice becomes the core of our curriculum. I tell the students that you can't know God unless you love other people."

• Best-kept secret? "It's that we're here. We're very small, and we keep our classes to 20 students. And we don't ever give up on kids."

• Everyone at our school knows? "Mr. A. He teaches all the art (classes) and physical education. He greets the students with me in the morning. He walks some kids to the bus stop in the afternoons. He's definitely who we are here."

• Our biggest challenge: A playground. "We have a play structure, but we really need a grassy playground that is kid-friendly. We don't have any place for Grades 1-4 to play. That's our weakness."

• Special events: The annual science fair held in January. Every student participates. Next year the school will add a fine arts fair, too.