Flood of support helps school meet tough goals

By Kalani Wilhelm
Advertiser Staff Writer

Lunalilo Elementary School Principal Clyde Igarashi follows footprints painted along a corridor to help kindergartners find their way to the office. Beautification is among the school's current projects. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

The school counts on that buffer nearly as much as it does the support that residents provide.

Principal Clyde Igarashi said he can tell by attendance figures, students' test performance — among the best in the state — and the number of parents involved in the Lunalilo School Community Association that the neighborhood cares.

Local businesses such as the McCully Shopping Center donate gift certificates during fund-raisers, display student artwork and help publicize school functions on bulletin boards and in store windows.

"None of us is (as) good as all of us," Igarashi said.

This school year, Lunalilo Elementary has been designated a Title I school for the first time, meaning it qualifies for federal money to provide extra help for its high number of poor students: 45 percent are enrolled in the free and reduced-price lunch program, a commonly used measure of poverty.

Under Title I, the school will receive $90,000, which Igarashi intends to use in ways that "best serve the students" and directly affect achievement, such as teacher training or part-time teachers hired to provide for additional instruction and support.

According to Vice Principal Amy Kantrowitz, 15 percent to 25 percent of the students at Lunalilo come from bilingual families.

Getting these students up to par in reading comprehension and writing is one of the school's top priorities, she said, and technology is being integrated to that end. For example, the school bought 10 Playstation2 video game consoles with language and math CDs to promote parent involvement and student learning at home.

It also has an extensive book and tape library, to allow students to hear words spoken and practice pronunciation.

• What are you most proud of? Igarashi credits the teachers, staff, students, parents and residents who make up the school community as the most important factors in the school's success. "We are a team," he said.

• Best-kept secret: Among Lunalilo's best-known graduates is U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye, who attended from 1930 to 1936.

• Everybody at our school knows: Lillian Novak, who works in the cafeteria at lunch and helps supervise students during recess. Igarashi calls her the ambassador of aloha because she greets every student with a smile.

• Our biggest challenge: Continuing to meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. Although test scores have been consistently good, Igarashi said, the school needs to keep improving so all students are proficient by 2014.

• What we need: Classroom renovations, resodding of fields, additional parking, tutors.

• Projects: Campus beautification projects and upgrading the phone system with an automated menu. At the end of last school year, the school developed a Positive Behavior Support system that helps students learn to be safe, responsible and respectful.

Special events: Lunalilo plans a 75th anniversary celebration in the fall. Students will sell cookbooks and T-shirts, and conduct a poetry contest in honor of King William C. Lunalilo, who loved English literature and poetry.

To get your school profiled, contact education editor Dan Woods at 525-5441 or dwoods@honoluluadvertiser.com